Blood pressure rising

Jags week came at the right time. I've been in a little funk for the last couple of weeks thanks to all the injuries and the inevitability of what's to come this season. The thrill was gone until January, but thankfully the Jags are coming to town.

I can't wait for this game.

I have the sneaky suspicion that the kitties are going to get their heads handed to them on Sunday, and I couldn't be happier about it. Jack Del Rio's comments about the Colts couldn't have been more ill timed. I think the roof is going to come off the dome Sunday from 56,000 people determined to make sure Vic suffers permanent hearing loss.

I haven't been more excited for a game in a looooong time. I'm not sure what we have to avenge exactly, but it feels like a reckoning is due. The Jags like to whine and preen, but they have yet to prove the they belong with the big dogs. The best part is that even if they win, they are still only in second place in the division. The Colts only have to go 4-1 to win the South and probably to clinch the 2 seed. I think we go 5-0.

The reason for my confidence? It finally looks like Tony Ugoh is ready to go.

(Cue the Hallelujah chorus)

This fact has been lost on Bill Simmons who concocts a scenario that is impossible. He somehow has the Colts losing the South and hosting the Browns during WC weekend. Um, Bill, this isn't 1988. That scenario isn't possible. WC teams don't host other WC teams. But whatever, we know you've stopped paying any real attention to sports about 18 months ago.

John Clayton says the worst is over for the Horse.

In other news, Tommy Boy is up for a big award. Be sure to vote for him. Thanks Dave, for the link.

Eyes in the Backfield should be up later tonight.

Demond Sanders: Bill Simmons has a loud mouth, and the fact that he's usually wrong only compounds the problem. His career record picking against the spread is awful. He can write about the NBA all he wants, but he has no business writing about the NFL. It was sweet to see him and his team in ruins last January, but this year it is going to be legendary.

More Trash

I try not to perpetuate trash by reprinting it, but I thought you'd get a kick out of Ask Vic's latest editorial.

Someone needs to tell Vic that the Colts are 9-2 despite injuries on all sides of the ball and if I remember correctly they still managed to kick his team's teeth in the last time they played. He thinks all the pressure is on the Colts. I'd say all the pressure is on the pathetic writer who proves on a weekly basis that he knows nothing about football and is working for a forgotten team that is suffering blackouts despite having a winning record. I'd say all the pressure is on Vic to find affordable housing in the greater Los Angeles area.

UPDATE: This is from the venerable Phil B. Wilson's blog:

Asked about the importance of Sunday's Colts-Jags game, Jags coach Jack Del Rio said something about how both the Colts and his team are 3-3 in their last six divisional games. Pause. Double pause. He said what? I'm guessing Del Rio is trying to suggest his Jags are just as good as the Colts. OK, maybe so, but the stat is as silly as it gets. Fact is, the Colts are 3-0 in the AFC South this year and the Jags are 2-2.

Okay, so I guess we know where Vic gets his brilliant information. Next we will be hearing that Del Rio is teaching a Statistics class in the evenings at Jacksonville State. Someone needs to remind JDR that the Colts are about to sweep the division.

Brother can you spare a dime?

Dante Hughes is done for the year. An already thin Colts secondary has been dealt another (albeit minor) blow. Hughes has played sparingly this year (he did get torched for a long TD on Thursday), and had been somewhat slowed by injuries all year. He was competing for the third corner slot, but was playing mostly on special teams and dime coverage. The team signed another corner who had previously been with the Bucs (read: knows the system and slow). Keiwan Ratliff, welcome to the World Champs. I have nightmares of him getting beat by Jabar Gaffney in January.

Do I admit to being an idiot?

So let me give you some context for my dilemma. Tuesday night I'm heading out of town with my wife for a getaway. Demond calls and pulls the whole depressed voice, "guess who's out for the year" bit. He tells me Roosevelt Colvin is out. I have internet access for about 5 minutes the next day, and throw up a comment on his post. Some how, between the joy of being away from the kids for a night and limited connectivity, I crossed wires in my brain. Something in me became convinced that Richard Seymour was out. Today, I come back and note my mistake with horror. So now that I've already posted about how Colvin and Freeney do the same job for their teams (which they clearly don't), do I admit my mistake and expose myself as a moron, or do I just let it go and hope no one notices.

Obviously, I chose to fess up. I'm an idiot. The substance of what I said is still sort of true, but not nearly as true as it would have been had it been Seymour who was hurt. So anyway, that's my boring confession of the day.

Bob M. pointed out that Phil B is saying what we've suspected for some time. Marvin might not be back until January. I don't think any of us are really shocked by that. If he really might be done, the team would have IRed him. Other than that, I'll believe he's coming back when I actually see him line up.

Time to take out the trash

The biggest game of the regular season, according to Bill Polian, takes place this Sunday. The Colts have a chance to make things very easy for themselves by sweeping the Jags. It would all but lock up the AFC South title and put the Colts in great position for a bye with four games to play. Pittsburgh, currently the three seed, still has tough games remaining versus New England and Jacksonville.

Here's an article from the Orlando Sentinel focusing on Jacksonville's mindset heading into the big game. David Garrard thinks the Jags can win the division. Also, the speculation has begun that Del Rio's contract will be renegotiated after the season. This is great news. I was seriously afraid for awhile that JDR would get fired prompting the Jags to actually win the division the following season. Instead a guy who hasn't won a four-team division in five attempts gets more money and more years on his deal.

Also check out Whitlock's latest work for FoxSports. He takes a broad look at the Sean Taylor tragedy. I agree with Whitlock less than half the time, but count me among the people who think the IndyStar should do whatever it takes to hire this guy. I do not know how he would fit in the budget, but Kansas City is not exactly a major market either. I have nothing against Bob Kravitz who has been much better over the past year. He's even made it off my official Bill Simmons and other people I can't stand list. I just think Whitlock would sell papers and give us something to talk about.
Deshawn Zombie comments: For Dungy's take on this sad event, check out our buddy Phil B. Wilson's blog. It's a sad world we live in.

No Podcast, but we still have 18 Plays

The holidays and other factors have conspired against Demond and I getting together to record 18 Plays this week. If anyone is curious, here are the 18 Plays that we had selected:

Kansas City

Q1 1:38 4th and 16 AV yanks the kick. How freaked out were we all when this went down?

Q2 11:02 1st and 10 Manning pick. Another tipped pass. The lack of protection/deep routes had KC abandon the rush and just sit at the line tipping passes.

4:04 3rd and 5 Mathis Sack and fumble. A huge play by a guy we NEED to make huge plays

Q3 8:09 1st 10 Addai for 17 to the 3 sets up TD. How great was he? The line was a mess, but Kid Joe delivered anyway.

1:29 3rd and 7 Croyle for TD. I'm still not sure how transferring the ball from your hands to your knees constitutes control.

Q4 14:53 1st and 10 MJax blows up Holmes. He hits almost as hard as the Zombie,

8:18 2nd 15 Brock sack. This killed the final KC drive. Brock gets better every week. He's at the top of his game.

4:59 2nd 17 Manning to Wayne for 19. Just when you thought the drive was dead.

2:00 4th and 1 Manning sneak. I didn't think this was all that controversial. There was a good chance the Colts would get the ball in scoring position anyway.

Atlanta Game

Q1 3:34 3rd and 2 58 yard TD to White. Rice was offsides. Hughes is a rookie. Rice is not. Now he's not a Colt.

:10 1st and 10 Manning to Gonzo for 35. The Microwave was huge all game long.

Q2 14:48 2nd and 23 Manning to Wayne TD

KO Norwood to the 44 plus 15 yards. This gives Falcons a FG. Hey there's the special teams we all know and love!

9:29 4th and 1 Colts punt, running into kicker. The penalty gives them a first down. I thought this call was gutless, and wanted the team to go for it. It worked out, but that doesn't mean it was right.

7:31 3rd and 8 Manning to Gonzo for 12. Wow, throws to a guy a who can catch on 3rd down? No wonder we won.

4:33 3rd and 5 Bethea KILLS Robinson. Just a massive hit. This play signaled the beginning of the end for the Falcons

4:07 1st and 10 Manning to Gonzo for 32. Manning jumps right down their throats and rips out their still beating hearts.

Q3 8:56 3rd and 10 Brock sacks Harrington. Again, pressure up the middle from the tackles makes the Indy impossible to beat. As long as Brock plays like this, we'll be ok the rest of the year.

Sorry we couldn't provide the usual depth of analysis that comes from rewatching the tape a ton of times, but it just wasn't possible. We'll shake ourselves and pull it together for this week.

Roosevelt Colvin on IR

The New England Patriots lost their only likable player when they placed Broad Ripple HS standout Roosevelt Colvin on IR today. It's official; there is no reason to like the Patriots. This is a big blow to Bill Belichick's squad given how well Rosie has played over the past few seasons. He is their youngest starting linebacker at the age of 30 and is one of their better defensive players. The Patriots have had an uncanny ability to overcome injuries during their Super Bowl years, but even so I believe this is a significant injury that will be felt come playoff time. I'd love to be able to tell you what exactly Colvin's injury is, but even his head coach does not seem to know.

Deshawn Zombie Comments: I hate injuries. I especially hate injuries to guys from Indy. I suppose, if there was going to be an injury that would offset Freeney's, this would be it. It's official, Colts fans can't complain about Freeney being hurt, because Colvin plays much the same role for the Pats. Both teams are down a key player, which is a shame.

In other news, Etruesports.com says there is a growing rift between the Manning boys.

Freeney is obviously more important than Colvin, but I know where you are coming from. New England has been fortunate to only lose one defensive starter to IR this season. The Colts have lost McFarland, Morris, and Freeney.

Fried Rice

Well that was quick. Almost as soon as it began, the Simeon Rice experiment is over. Despite collecting a Mathis-induced sack last Thursday, the Colts released the pass rushing DE today. He hadn't made much impact in two games (he did sniff out a screen pass against KC, but jumped off side costing the Colts a score against Atlanta).

Hey, it was worth a try. Demond suspects the Colts will move Brock to the outside (he has been on a freaking tear of late), and use the rookies inside at DT. I think it's hard to move around a guy who has been ragingly effective inside. At any rate, Luke Lawton is back, which should help the special teams.

Good thing they let Kyle Brady walk

The ever-informative Jaguars.com tells us that the Jags lost both TEs for the season during Sunday's game against Buffalo. That's an impressive feat. No word yet on whether injured LB Mike Peterson will play.

I think the story coming into this game has to be the play of QB David Gerrard. He has thrown 9 touchdowns and no interceptions for Jacksonville this season in eight games. Those numbers are far from explosive, but at least he's not turning the ball over like Leftwich. In the modern NFL that makes you a Pro Bowler. Then again, it is not exactly difficult to make the Pro Bowl. Just ask Vince Young and Philip Rivers.

It's Del Rio Week!

Why would a reviewer make the point of saying someone's not a genius? Do you especially think I'm not a genius? . . . You didn't even have to think about it, did you?

Enjoy that bowl, Hoosiers...

because it'll be your last for awhile. IU proved today that they are not committed to winning at football by inexplicably rehiring Bill Lynch. Look, he did ok this year. JUST OK. Using another coach's players, he managed to chalk up exactly 1 impressive win (blowing a huge lead before coming back on Purdue is what passes for impressive 'round these parts). He isn't D 1 material, and shouldn't have been retained. I heard JMV (950 was playing college football) say last week that if IU hired some young gun, he'd just win and then leave the program for a better job. To this I say, "Yeah, but he'd have to WIN in order to do that!" I'd take two or three winning seasons, wouldn't you?

At this point I'm almost willing to see what Bill Mallory is doing. Bill Lynch is NOT the answer. IU will be back to 3-9 in two seasons.

Demond Sanders: I appreciate what Bill Lynch has done for Indiana this season. He played QB on my dad's high school team so I always root for him as a coach. However, I have to agree with DZ's take on this. The bottom line is Indiana doesn't have the money to spend on a football coach at this juncture. They are committed to spending money on the infrastructure and, of course, the basketball program. They are hoping Lynch can get them back to another bowl game or two in the next few years. I had hoped they would pick a younger version of Hep, someone motivated and ambitious. I believe Lynch puts a ceiling on what they can accomplish at least as far recruiting. I hope I'm wrong, but to me this is the definition of settling for less.

Thoughts on a Coltsless Sunday

• Vince Young is finally killing the Titans. Once Haynesworth went down, their D couldn't carry the team anymore, and VY is getting exposed. He's playing basically the same as he has for the last year and a half. He hasn't changed, the Titans D has. Why can't he 'just win' games now?
• I think it's pretty clear why the Eagles let Jeff Garcia walk. His back injury doesn't bode well for the Bucs.
• Jags are going down this week. I think the Colts win big. (ok, I know. I say that every week).
• Have any two 1 and 2 seeds ever fallen as hard and as fast as the Chargers and Ravens? Neither one of those teams is doing anything this year.
• I know the Bears won, but that fourth down play was crazy. You can't exactly call that a high percentage deal. I doubt they complete that 5 times out of 50. (or 10% of the time for the fractionally challenged).
• Cutler is becoming a player. Grossman is terrifying (in the bad sense). Why would anyone kick to Hester? The Bears block special teams plays exquisitely.
• I think we all knew the Pats were coming back in that game; we've seen it from the Colts all the time. Really good teams don't lose that game, and it had the same kind of certainty that the Colts/KC game had last week. I'm not going to comment again on the weaknesses of the Pats that came out this game. We all know what they are. The rest of the NFL does too. What's important in this game is that the Pats handled the pressure well and won. STYLE POINTS DON'T MATTER. Wins matter. This win is just as good for the Pats at 31-28 as it would have been at 40-10. Brady made his best case of the year for MVP.
• It's still amazing to me that the Dolphins would have traded Welker in order to draft Ted Ginn Jr. That exchange makes incredibly little sense. There is no one home in the front offices of the Dolphins.

Demond Sanders: Miami and Oakland should be kicked out of the league for those idiotic trades last year. Still, I wasn't terribly surprised that the Eagles played the Pats so closely. The New England defense hasn't been the same the last couple of years. Losing Roosevelt Colvin early in the game didn't help any. The Eagles offensive line did a good job and their receivers made catches. The Colts did neither of these things in their game against the Pats.

The Patriots offense is hard to stop, but the Eagles and Colts showed you can slow them down by doing exactly what teams have done to the Colts for the past couple years. Take away the deep ball and force them to throw underneath. This shortens the game and forces the offense to play mistake-free. The Patriots won last night because they didn't turn the ball over, but Brady had several balls that could have been intercepted. The Eagles may have won if they had managed to force just one turnover. Credit the Patriots for a tough win, but the quest for perfection just gets tougher from here.

My first act will be to invade New England and search for WMDs

Courtesy of Etruesports.

Big deals and small time operators

Anyone who has followed the Reds for the last two seasons knows that they have have solid core of talent, and even a top flight ace in the rotation, but the bullpen has been horrible. Basically, GM Wayne Krivsky has a mandate to win from ownership, and spent all last season signing relievers. Few of them worked out. For the record, I don't blame him, a GM who tries to address the team's weaknesses gets a pass from me for a time. Once again, the Reds have ponied up in a BIG way, signing Francisco Cordero away from the division rival Brewers. This is potentially a GREAT move, and certainly gives the Reds hope for this next year. 46 million is a big number for a reliever, but the Reds were desperate. It ain't money ball, but live arms are hard to find, and were the main thing keeping this team out of contention. As one poster on a Reds message board wrote: Great pickup. If Jim Bowden was still running the team, he probably would have signed Joe Kennedy this morning. HA!

Eric Gordon is insane. I know it's waaaay early to say it, so don't stone me, but he just might become the best player ever to play at IU (ok, it'll be freaking impossible to be better than Zeke), but still he's pretty freaking amazing.

What a HUGE win for the blue and gold last night. I personally don't buy into the "blame JO for everything" school of thought, but it's undeniable that the offense ran better. Dunleavy is working out quite nicely, but I'm not sold on Troy Murphy. A win over Cleveland on Sunday would get the Pacers back to .500 and put them squarely in the conversation for being one of the 7 or 8 best teams in the East. Ugh, I hate that I have to write that sentence.

Several have mentioned hating the Gumbel/Collinsworth team on Thursday night. There are actually multiple things at work here, but the primary one is the intentional style that they use. NFL network has made a conscious choice to try and pioneer a new announcing style (they call it 'conversational') in all their games. The idea is for Gumbel not to narrate the game with play by play but rather to chair a discussion with Collinsworth. It doesn't help that Collinsworth has always been a major Manning critic, has two settings to his voice (drone and shrill), and generally ignores things that don't support his commentary (I nailed several of those in the game blog). Look, I'm biased. I've hated CC since he was on Sports Talk on WLW in the early 90s. He knew NOTHING about baseball and embarrassed himself nightly. All that being said, the crew is not working, and it practically put me to sleep. Everyone doesn't have to be Gus Johnson, but still. . . a little emotion wouldn't hurt anything.

Finally, I think I'm going to start calling Anthony Gonzalez "The Microwave."

Reheated

Colts 31 - Falcons 13

If a Falcon falls in a forest...

Is it weird to anyone else that there is so little postgame coverage of last night's Thanksgiving tilt? I mean, honestly, other than a Len Pasquarelli piece, and the normal Indystar stuff, it's like this game never happened. Most of the country didn't see it (although it turns out that Demond did get to watch it because his wife's grandparents have a dish), and since the outcome was more or less expected, there just isn't much to say about it. I did pick up a couple of things from around the web.

Si's Jim Trotter misses the point about Randy Moss, Jason Whitlock doesn't. Moss is the MVP. This ought to be one of the most inarguable facts of the season. Trotter says last season taints this one, and he's almost right. It taints his career. It taints his HoF candidacy. This season, however, is a self-contained unit. I don't care how big a dog Moss was in Oakland, he's the MVP right now. I wouldn't vote for him for the hall based on his on the field actions the last couple of years (though no one can deny he is the single most unstoppable weapon in NFL history), but the only thing to be considered for an MVP award is this year. This year, he's the best.

And finally, Peyton goes shopping.

I was right, I was wrong

Sorry I didn't cover the second half, but here are my reflections on the game in general.

1. Eyes in the Backfield was pretty freaking accurate for these past two games. Rice got a sack (thanks to Mathis), but Josh Thomas made some plays. Ugoh being out continued to plague the offense, and TJ Rushing returned and was playing in the secondary. Also the thing about the turkeys. I just didn't realize the Falcons would be dressing them all in uniforms.

2. Charlie Johnson is approaching Gilbert Gardner territory. Only his great play in the Super Bowl last year is saving him (that and he might be a perfectly serviceable guard). Was anyone surprised to see him on the sidelines in the second half? I have to go back and check the tape as to when he left the game, but it's curious that the protection dramatically improved in the second quarter.

3. Tonight was a great game by Manning. The pick was a bad decision, as he had a man hanging on his leg which led him to underthow the pass, but in general, he was dealing while under duress. Clearly, they found a weakness in the middle of the field with the TEs and exploited it.

4. Maybe I was wrong about how much the receivers mattered. That is simply a different team with Anthony Gonzalez out there. Tonight was exciting, as he showed flashes of why they drafted him in the first round. I agree with Phil B, this team is undefeated if he had played the second half of the NE game and the SD game. Again, it's not an excuse, but his play had to make everyone feel better.

5. Antoine Bethea. . . um, he's pretty good. About the only bad play I've seen him make in a year in and half was giving up the deep ball to Moss after dropping a pick. He hits hard and makes big plays. The Colts secondary isn't deep (tough night for the rookie Dante Hughes - but he'll learn), but the top four are serious players. I'll stack Bethea, Sanders, Jackson and Hayden against any team's starting secondary.

6. So maybe I jumped the gun when I declared the game over when the Colts punted on 4th and 1. I just really hate punting in those situations. The Falcons proved that going for it on 4th and short generally works out ok. I suppose I should call Dungy a genius for planning that penalty. I'll blame it on Demond not being around nor answering his phone all night. Normally, he's the psycho roof jumper, and I have to be calm and positive. Without his need for me to be stable, I went a little nuts. It's the holidays. Happens to everyone.

7. I was glad to hear the conversation about "Is Dungy a genius?". Listen, he's added more innovation to the game than Holmgren or Billick. His record is far superior. He's one Super Bowl away from being mentioned with the greatest to ever coach the game. He definitely deserves as much credit for being a great coach as those two. Listen, he gets lots of love from the media, but always for being a great man. That's wonderful, and ultimately the more important reason to be praised; I'm just saying that he deserves props for his ability as a coach. At the end of this season, we'll update the numbers for his Hall of Fame credentials. This year has been one of his finest jobs. It's easy to forget that this great defense he has installed is starting players who have almost exclusively only ever played for Indianapolis, and is featuring new starters at a boatload of positions.

8. I think we all can feel good heading into the Jacksonville game next week. Hopefully, we'll have our tackles back, and the team will be nearly at full strength. As I noted earlier this week, it's not quite a must win for the Colts as we'll still have the AFC South lead even if we lose, but a win seals the deal. Let's make this division a laugher by December 3.

I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving. Demond should be back with this week's picture and possibly 18 Plays tomorrow. Meanwhile, I'm going to spend the weekend going to the Heritage and Pike games on Friday and Saturday. Have a great weekend.

Colts Falcons live game blog

Ok, guys, I'm caving. I debated whether or not to blog the game tonight. But I'm going to start for a little while. Chris Collinsworth is an idiot and might drive me to drink before the end of the night. Demond won't be around to help me. He's caught in the grips of the NFL Network controversy. He's visiting family in NW Indiana and is probably caught in some dive trying to convince some bartender named Big Joe to let him watch the game. Or he's at Hooters. I'm going to blog a quarter or so and see how my energy holds up. Turkey make Zombie sleepy.

Q1

• They miked up the Zombie. I'm pretty sure I heard him say, "Mmmmm, brains."
• Collinsworth says, "Dungy has been a defensive minded coach all his life." Other than that little thing about playing QB at Minnesota.
• As a general rule of thumb, it's nearly impossible to stop a team when they go for 4th downs. It's distressing, but also predictable to see the draw plays be so effective. The Colts had this area pretty well fixed early in the season, but it's still the best option when it comes to running against Indy.
• Early on this game reminds me of the Carolina game. Joey Harrington is saving us by being his usual crappy self. Great pressure ends the drive with a field goal try. It's nice to see Rice chasing Harrington down.
• Crap scares everyone, but it appears the whistle saved us. Let's face it folks, he's a bit scary. Geeze, I just used scare twice in two sentences. I'm not exactly lighting it up thesaurus-wise.
• Hey, nice job O line. The Charlie Johnson nightmare tour continues. Meanwhile, Collinsworth says, "The Colts try to run this play without a tight end in to block leading to the sack" He apparently misses Dallas Clark whiff on the blitzing linebacker. This line is an embarrassment. Manning is going to get killed before it's all over.
• A stupid penalty gives the Falcons a touchdown. This team is 100% out of sorts right now. Hughes gets beat deep as he plays up tight in man coverage.
• Addai stays down after a first down run. Just kill me now. I notice that Peyton ignored Keith coming out of the backfield on 3rd down. He has no confidence in his ability to catch a 3rd down throw.
• Only a safety can keep the wheels from completely spinning off right now.
• Ok, so no safety but a nice stand. We actually gained yardage on the exchange of possessions. We can only hope that Joe Addai is ok.
• HEY! Was that Aaron Moorehead out there catching? No? Oh wow.

Q2

• Wow. The Fletcher sabotages a TD and then drops a pass. Nice series man.
• Seriously great play by Manning as the line gives him time to throw down field. That was a huge score. Terrific throw with time for Wayne to get open.
• How can guys who have contain continue to overpursue? There was no reason for that to be a big return. The penalties and stupid mistakes are piling up.
• The D is under serious pressure now. Holding them to FG is a win in this situation. Don't think that's going to happen. White is killing us.
• Great play by Keiaho to cover the slot receiver and then kick away a pass. There's the FG, which isn't bad considering where the drive started.
• I like the decision to come out running (and not just because I have Keith in fantasy). I think it's the best (only?) way to keep the pressure off #18. I think they ought to go for this 4th down.
• Nope a punt. Loser football. This game is over. OOOOOH a roughing call might just save us. Still, you can't punt there. ATL already showed they were the aggressor. You have to match it.
• Wow, a Thanksgiving miracle. A penalty to save the drive AND Kid Joe comes back. Sometimes the difference between winning and losing is razor thin.
• Bad throw by Petyon on 2nd down. On a huge 3rd down play, AG proves again how much we missed him.
• How do we possibly have the lead? Again, they have played terrible in spots and still have points on the board. The Colts have clearly found something on those passes to the TE over the middle. Clark runs the same pattern that Utecht had successfully executed earlier in the drive.
• The D really has to be on that draw play. It's killing us all night.
• BETHEA LIGHTS UP ROBINSON! What a sick hit. Hilarious hold on the return.
• Um, does anyone think we missed AG a little?
• Manning is KILLING the Falcons. Wow, somebody flipped a switch on this club. From the minute that penalty was called, this game took a major turn. That was a great catch by Utecht.
• Mathis blows up the play, and Simeon Rice collects a sack. Um, Collinsworth, if the Falcons WERE comfortable with where they were, they aren't now. They are down 8 and the Colts get back to back possessions. This could get ugly real quick.
• Instead the line gets ugly real quick.

Family crap (God bless the holidays) has made it so I can't really finish blogging this game. Hopefully the second half goes well. Good night everyone.

Let me explain (one more time)

Buried in the comments this week was the bizarre rant of a Pats fan who clearly hasn't been paying attention.

Mossi says: you people live in a bizzaro land. it's awesome. quick - what's more pathetic than a pats fan reading a colts blog? hmm, lemme think...ah i got it, whining about the pats on every monday morning post and then spending the rest of the week commenting about one of the greatest NFL teams in history. keep it up peeps, it's great entertainment!take this to bed with ya - Brady won three superbowls with exactly ONE WR who had over 1,000 yards. ONE. talk about lack of firepower but still found a way to get it done.thank god for your sake peyton had marvin and wayne last year.. oh and the fact the competition was a high school JV football. phew..

Ok Mossi, let's take this piece by piece.

1. Whining about the Pats this year - I pretty clearly said in that same post that I wasn't going to comment on this year's Pats. There just no point until in January.

2. Brady won Super Bowls with 1 WR. and

3. Did he really call the 2006 Pats a JV team?

Let's examine the thinking behind #2, because Pats fans have been talking a lot about it.

1. WR is faaaaaaar from the most important position on a football team. Brady tagged along on three teams with amazing defenses. He didn't 'get it done' despite a lack of firepower. He managed the games so his freaking amazing D and kicker could win the games. These are his point totals in the playoff games he won: 16, 20, 17, 24, 32, 20, 34, 24. In four of his seven wins, the Pats didn't even score 3 TDs. He didn't get it done with a lack of firepower, his defense did. He did have a huge game against Pittsburgh in the championship game in 2005, so that's to his credit, but most of his playoff point totals were modest at best. That's not a criticism. He did just enough to win given the defense he had. Just don't act like he pulled of some herculean task by single handedly willing the Pats to victory. He managed games effectively and let his D take over. You don't NEED WRs to win that kind of game.

2. HE DIDN'T NEED WRs BECAUSE THEY DIDN'T HAVE A PASSING OFFENSE, MORON. Their offense was constructed in an entirely different way than the Colts offense is. It's apples to oranges. Because of the great defense, the Pats had constructed an offense built around short routes and ball control. The Colts offense tries to spread the field and stretch the defense vertically. In this style of offense, having speedy receivers is much more critical to the team's success.

3. In addition, the injuries to the receiving corp ISN'T THE PROBLEM WITH THE COLTS. Injuries to the line are. I know the media keeps focusing on Harrision being out, but the truth is the loss of both the right and left tackle are much much bigger problems. We've beaten this death, but you obviously aren't paying attention.

4. No one felt bad for Brady not having WRs last year because it was the PATS OWN DAMN FAULT THEY TRADED BRANCH. Look, if you don't have WRs because they got hurt it's bad luck, but if you trade away your best wideout, you don't get to bitch and whine about not having wideouts. The Pats brass decided that WRs weren't important (see points number 1 and 2), and therefore didn't have them. If Branch had blown out his knee, you'd have a case. Just because your team was arrogant and stupid and cost themselves a title by trading him him is no reason for anyone else to pity poor Tommy Boy.

5. If the Colts had started the year with these wideouts, they'd be playing much better. There's a big difference between starting the year with bad WRs and having them thrust on your offense mid season. Moorehead was fourth on the depth chart and moved up to two. Thorpe didn't even make the team. These guys haven't had the benefit of major reps with the starting offense, thus the Colts can't run the no huddle, change plays offense they need to. Manning can't trust them to get the plays and adjust the way they are supposed to. They are trying to run a deep down-field timing offense not a west coast dink and dunk offense the way the Pats did for most of this decade.

In short, Mossi. Your comment was ignorant not only of the Colts situation, but of your own team's makeup and philosophy. That's really weak man. If you don't understand the Colts, fine. They aren't your team. But if you can't understand your own club, that's just embarrassing.

Good Bye Aaron and SeatGate

Aaron Moorehead has almost assuredly played his last game for the Colts. A preseason stalwart who had a good radio show, he was unproductive the last few weeks and has been placed on IR by the club, ending his season and likely his career with this club. He finally got his chance to play, and it was evident to everyone with two eyes that he couldn't cut it. On the bright side, Dan Klecko is back.

I want to mention a couple of things I've seen around the web in various places. Several sites have mentioned that Manning "only lost one weapon" over the past few weeks. These people would count Anthony Gonzalez as a back up and think that offensive line play is an afterthought. We've been saying for weeks that the loss of Tony Ugoh is responsible for the slow start in Carolina and the losses to NE and SD and crap fest that was KC. The losses of Diem and Ugoh are ENORMOUS and can't be overemphasized. There is almost no elite offense in football that could adequately function with back ups at both tackle slots. Manning could have survived with the WRs (as bad as they were), but the O line play made it impossible. One site suggested Manning ditch his pride and call run plays. Uh, don't you need holes for run plays to work? Colts running backs have had more -5 and -3 yard carries in the last three weeks than at any time in the last couple of years. Addai has played better than I've ever seen a running back play and barely chalked up 70 yards a game the last two weeks. I'm not trying to apologize for Manning; I'm just trying to give the ACTUAL source of the trouble as opposed to simplistic minds who blame all losses and all wins on the quarterback.

There is other stuff that is bugging me, but it's more NE related crap that won't go away until January (when it will dissipate in a cloud of inevitable hilarity) so there is no point in getting worked up over it.

The seating assignments for the new stadium are out and not everyone is happy. Rob has informed us that the Star is doing a piece on this issue tomorrow, so we are going to hold off commenting too much until it comes out, and it becomes clear how many fans are affected, but I thought you all would appreciate his thoughts and the team's response. Our tickets are in a different section, and it appears that our new seats are basically in the same (as much as is possible) spot as the old ones. It's unclear if this issue affected only the endzones or other blocks of seats as well. If you have had a similar experience to Rob, let us know.

Demond Sanders: You make a good point about the number of run plays that have resulted in negative yardage. It's like Dominic Rhodes is in the backfield again. The Colts were one of the best rushing teams in the league through the first 8 weeks of the season. Now Addai has to dodge three guys to get back to the line of scrimmage. Kenton Keith gets stoned for a loss every time he enters the game. Something is amiss and it has nothing to do with Manning.

I would like to share my experience with the ticket conversion. Our current tickets are in Section 343 on the aisle. Our new tickets will be in Section 616 on the aisle. We will still be located in the upper level on about the ten yard line. The only real difference is that we got moved two rows backwards, which is not a huge deal. It would appear they did a very good job of matching our current seats. Of course until we actually sit in the new building we won't have any idea whether or not we were jobbed. Who is to say Section 616 is the same distance from the field?

I think one of the factors that hurt Rob is the end zone seats are drastically cheaper than the seats on the sides, like ours. A single ticket for Section 616 was tentatively scheduled to cost $640 per season, while a ticket in the upper end zone was scheduled to cost $240. Not only are there fewer of those seats, according to the Colts, but they are likely in very high demand because of the affordability factor. Rob's current tickets are in the $640 range so I guess the Colts moved him over to what they feel corresponds to that price range in Lucas Oil. What I don't understand, however, is why they wouldn't honor his clear request to stay in the end zone? He has had first row end zone seats for 20 years. If anyone should get priority it should be those ticket holders.

Update: Here's the link to the Phil B. piece. It seems that this is an isolated and not wide spread problem. What had really infuriated him was the thought that the team was jacking over the whole fanbase. Rob writes:

DZ, Thanks having you guys and Phil to share this with has helped more then anything else. I'm trying to keep this all in perspective, but every person I talk to about it just keeps raising my Blood Pressure. I'll keep you guys in the loop. I'm glad that you didn't get screwed, I'm really hoping that our situation is fairly isolated, that would actually help in some way. For some reason, it would be better in my mind if some weird concoction of circumstances led us to getting such bad placement while the vast majority of ticket holders were given fair treatment. It wouldn't change our situation but = this isn't a feeling I want to be sharing with a ton of people. It will be very interesting at the next home game to find out where others in our area were moved to.Thanks for letting me vent to you and via your blog. You guys are great, at this point I want to stay connected about the Colts mostly just to keep sharing with you and the other bloggers out there. Thanks

No problem man. If other people out there aren't happy, let us know, but for now, we'll call it a bad break and let it go.

Uncle Bill offers some hope

There have been a couple of unintended consequences of doing a Colts blog and sharing our experiences as fans with you all. One is that I feel a sense of richness about wins and losses that I missed. I've been living overseas for a long time, so other than calls to Demond and my dad, I felt disconnected from other fans. I've enjoyed that aspect of things much more than I would have guessed. The other consequence is that it's forced me to stay engaged and 'in touch' with my Colts related pain. In years past when the Horse would lose, I'd be a bit depressed, and would basically not touch the computer for a week. I wouldn't read articles (other than the safe haven of the Star), or watch the game again until very late the next week. Now with 18to88, I feel like I have to keep up on things way more than I used. So after two losses and an ugly win, and with half the team looking like the revolutionary war fife and drum corp (I went looking for the classic picture of them all bandaged up and couldn't find one-anyone out there have my back?), I still have to be engaged emotionally with football when normally, I'd do everything possible to avoid thinking about the team until after a win. I take it too hard to say engaged. I don't know how Demond can do it, because he's even more depressive about things than I am.

That being said, Polian's comments in the Star this morning give us some hope on Marvin. He offered up the first detailed description of his injury to date, and it doesn't look like he's d-o-n-e. Tony also said AG and Ugoh could well be back Thursday, thus giving the O a game to try and get some rhythm back before Jacksonville.

Also, one more note of encouragement about the AFC South situation. Jacksonville has two division losses already. For them to win the division, they would have to go undefeated AND hope that Indy loses a second game (other than the Jhole game), or they could lose a game if Indy loses two games within the division. They still have to play at Indy, Pitt and Houston. I don't like their chances.

I think we mentioned this, but 18 Plays will come out Friday or Saturday and will encompass 9 plays from Sunday's game and 9 from Thursday's.

Fallout

It feels like we are right back to where we were three or four weeks ago doesn't it? The Patriots are mauling an AFC East team, so everyone assumes it's metaphysically impossible to beat them. Meanwhile, Peyton "Hawkeye" Manning and his lovable band of wacky military doctors are just sort of plugging along. You all should know by now how we feel about the rest of this season...nothing counts until January. I suppose that's slightly overblown, as in 13 days, the Colts should have a pretty tough matchup with the Jholes, but in essence it's true. The Colts can afford one and possibly even two losses and still have the two seed. It's not about playing well, it's about getting healthy.

That being said, the lack of pressure was disturbing yesterday from the D-line. It was pressure that keyed the defense against the Patriots in the first half, and when that ran out, the Pats hit some big plays. Watching the NE game yesterday (admittedly, only for about a half a quarter) it looked like a return to the Brady-has-a-half-an-hour-to-throw-days of several weeks ago. I'm still a little baffled by how horribly bad these teams play against the Pats. The Bills had an awful game plan and horrible execution. I think that bad weather in January will help slow NE down, but in the end it's going to take consistent pressure on Brady to win. Freeney's injury may kill us all yet.

I think we've all come to accept that Marvin isn't coming back anytime soon. My best guess: they'll roll him out for the playoffs after being out all season. Why? Simply put, they haven't put him on IR. The Colts are incredibly thin right now and desperately need the roster slot (they cut a staple veteran every week just to make the roster limits). If Marvin absolutely wasn't playing, they'd put him on IR. At this point, I think they are keeping him around just to trot him out against Pittsburgh and NE. Or he could play Thursday, who knows?

A couple of quick links (remember those?): FO still likes the Colts as the only real challenger to the Pats.
Peter King thought going for it on fourth down was crazy. I was espousing Dungy's logic yesterday, that the Chiefs were likely to be forced to punt to the Colts, and they would have a chance to move into FG range anyway. The real mistake was taking the timeout with 6 instead of 2 seconds left. Demond mentioned it yesterday, but I've seen lots of coaches do this. I'm not sure why. We did it against Denver last year as well. I get doing that on 3rd down, in case of a bad snap, but on 4th down why not just let the clock run down to 2 secs? Lots of coaches do that and it just makes no sense.

Recovery

Colts 13 - Chiefs 10

Back from the Dome

Well, they didn't win by 70. They didn't win 30-0. They won 13-10. The game ended in an eerily similar fashion to last week. The Colts needed to have a game-winning six minute drive. They had a huge fourth and inches. This time they went for it. Ball game.

• Can anyone tell me why Dungy left 6 seconds on the clock? I know they won the game, but does that decision make sense to anyone? Inform me.

• Why was Charlie Johnson allowed to play the whole game. He never got better. He was rattled. Others on the line had struggles as well. Manning usually had to dodge two men before he could get a throw off. Batted balls galore.

• Joseph Addai had 106 total yards. Hard-fought yards. Amazing. He's the best player on the Colts right now and it's not close. Great jump cut on the touchdown run. Insane 9 yard run at the end of the game. Scary good.

• The defense didn't pitch a shut out, but it felt like they did. They were on the field all day and showed very little sign of it. Josh Thomas had a solid day, but they didn't generate as much pressure as would have hoped. The defense is light-years ahead of the offense right now. They'll need to have a huge game against Atlanta. Yes, I realize Atlanta is horrible. Yes, the Indy offense is that bad right now. Yes, it is the line's fault.

• DZ and I had this conversation on AIM after the game:

Deshawn Zombie (4:36:06 PM): Charile Johnson is so horrible
Deshawn Zombie (4:36:14 PM): I'm insane with rage
Demond Sanders (4:36:18 PM): he actually depressed me
Demond Sanders (4:36:24 PM): like psychologically

• If you were like me you were sitting there at halftime thinking, "So this is how it's going to be?" Some seasons just end when enough guys get hurt. Happens every couple of seasons. The Colts have been fortunate with injuries for the bulk of Manning's career. If they make any kind of playoff run, I'll be impressed with their guts. This should be fascinating to watch how it plays out.

• I booed Adam Vinatieri in the first half. I've seen situations where I felt booing was wrong, but this wasn't one of them. Quit missing kicks and we'll stop booing. I clapped for AV too, and cheered him on, but he deserved to be booed for those misses. That said, I'm glad he got the chance to make the game winning kick. Hopefully that killed his yips for good.

• I can't figure out why Crap Thorpe wasn't used earlier as a receiver. I feel bad for Moorehead, but he isn't working out. Also, I liked the game Fletcher played last week. I know he's the third string TE, but he makes plays.

Deshawn Zombie comments: Today is a perfect lesson that style points don't count in the NFL, just wins. We won a few of these clunkers last year (Buffalo, Tennessee). The line was awful, the receivers couldn't catch passes, all of which left Manning off rhythm. Jake Scott is clearly no more a tackle than Charlie Johnson. Let's hope he isn't playing there past Thursday. Joe Addai is a freaking football genius. He had no holes and was an absolute beast in all areas of the game, even blocking Jared Allen WAAAAAAAY better than either Utech or Charlie Johnson. As for Vinatieri...who knows. Tasker kept saying he was hurt, but then said he wouldn't talk about it. This left me wondering how he knew he was hurt. His distance was fine (the 49 yarder had plenty of leg), and the kickoffs weren't any less deep than normal. We need to take care of business in the short week, get healthy and move on.

Did anyone catch Dan Dierdorf saying after the Chargers/Jholes game, "The Colts are looking in their rear view mirror, and they see Jack Del Rio's face smiling back at them"...hee hee. It's true, and that's why I'm not sweating the division title.

Also, so much for Pittsburgh being a super power. I've seen them play a lot. They are good...good enough to beat anybody on any given day, but they are also woefully inconsistent and people who thought they were going 13-3 or 14-2 are nuts. 13-3 is my magic number for the Colts to have the number two seed. We need to crap out another win Thursday night over an inferior club and then use the 10 day 'second bye week' to get guys healthy again. Oh, and just in case anyone out there thought the Pats weren't pissed about getting held to 24 by Indy should ask Buffalo how they feel right now. I watched enough of that game to see a Buffalo safety choose NOT to cover Randy Moss on a deep ball, and thought, "Well, there's no point in leaving this crap on". It was the first quarter.

Chiefs Pre-game

I haven't felt like blogging about the Colts much this week, but it is time to get back to winning. Today's opponent at the RCA Dome is the Kansas City Chiefs. KC has a slightly better than average defense and a very poor offense. It is kind of amazing that they are 4-5. They've been outscored by 38 points on the season. They'll be starting Priest Holmes at running back today. Remember 4 years ago when those words would have scared you to death? Brodie Croyle from Alabama will be the starting quarterback.

For the fifth straight week injuries are the story-line for the Colts. It will be very interesting to see how Simeon Rice and Josh Thomas play. Freeney hasn't been a numbers guy for several seasons, but he helped prevent the big play by forcing shorter throws. I wouldn't be shocked if there was a significant drop-off in the pass defense, but I'm not expecting one. I'm not sure what to expect on the offensive side of the ball. Dallas Clark is back, but the Colts will have a very makeshift line with Ugoh and Johnson out. Joseph Addai had a tough game last week partiallly because the field was extremely slick. He'll be back to his Pro Bowl form this week.

Did you know that the Colts have lost six of the eleven starters off their Super Bowl defense? Today the Colts D sends a message to the league. We're not going away. Look for the Colts to post what I believe would be their first shutout of the decade. The offense will be good enough for a 30-0 win.

Playing 13

Whether you are a Hoosier fan or not you gotta love seeing the boys finish Hep's mission. Indiana is going to a bowl for the first time in a long, long time.

Haiku Power

If anyone hasn't read the comments on yesterday's Asian poetry themed post, make sure you do. It's haiku mania here at 18to88. Seriously nice work people.

Saturday is by far our slowest traffic day around here at 18to88.com. That means I probably should have gotten around to posting Eyes in the Backfield yesterday. It didn't happen though... A friend suggest that I 'tease' Eyes here on the blog so people realize what it is, so here is that 'tease':

Simply because we are lazy, we've combined Eyes in the Backfield for the next two games. It's easy to see them as a unit and a prelude to the big rematch with Jacksonville, so we'll confess that we are indeed guilty of looking ahead just a bit. This week:

1. Watch for Rice-a-roni. Not to go all Chris Berman on you early, but Simeon Rice should get some very limited playing time in these first two games. No one is overly optimistic that he’ll contribute much (and certainly not until the long layoff before Jacksonville), but it should be interesting to see what he can do mostly in nickel packages where he can just rush the passer. More importantly, see if Josh Thomas can continue his solid play this year in an expanded role. He usually makes a play or two a game as a spot rusher. He’s the real answer at LDE.

There are 17 more lovely nuggets of truth on Eyes each week, so check it out.

Finally, THE DEVILS DO IT AGAIN! Pike has played three insane games in three weeks, but will now take on Carmel in the state championship game at the dome next Saturday. This is a classic matchup of good vs evil as...wait, never mind. I get carried away sometimes. I suppose 88 reasons to hate Carmel would be overkill wouldn't it? 18to88 will be present for next week's game and will give you all a full report. I know you can't wait.

Ode to Dwight

Deshawn Zombie and I are working on our newest feature story for 18to88.com. It's called 93 Haikus about Dwight Freeney. Here are a few examples:

Sweat drips down Carr's face
He can't stop what is coming
Another spleen bruise

Gray stands like a statue
Crumpling under Freeney's weight
Two points on the board

Love you ninety-three
Why'd you have to break your foot?
Damn damn damn damn damn

Rounding third and heading for home...

A baseball icon passed yesterday. Cincinnati Reds announcer and symbol Joe Nuxhall headed home to glory after a long bout with cancer. He was 79. Joe's was one of the voices that ushered me into the world of baseball, as I listened to him every summer from my 10th birthday. He was the youngest man to ever play Major League Baseball, coming to his hometown Reds at the age of 15 during WWII. For more than 60 years, he was a faithful representative of the game and team he loved. Together with his Hall of Fame partner Marty Brennaman, he brought the game to life each and every night. By all accounts, Joe was one of the finest men alive and had dedicated himself to helping troubled youth. He was the heart and soul of baseball in Cincinnati in a way that only Peter Edward could rival, but unlike Rose, he never failed us, never let us down. The Old Left Hander is a man that ought to be inducted into the Hall of Fame under the new Buck O'Neil Award. He was an amazing ambassador for the game, and world is lesser place without him. His passing signals the passing of an epoch in both baseball and American life that can not be retrieved. The world is moving on.

I cried as I wrote this. O Dischordia. O Loss. Thanks, Nuxy.
"Oliver bounces it....FAIR! DOWN THE THIRDBASE LINE...BILLY BATES WILL SCORE AND THIS ONE BELONGS TO THE REDS!"

Star of the Game

I just wanted to call your attention to a couple of items in the Star today. First off, check Phil B's blog entry about Freeney. Freeney always seemed (seems-I mean, he's not exactly dead) like a really great guy, and Phil B's mournful entry confirms that.

Also, on the good news front, Clark, Ugoh, and Junior Seau Jr. were back at practice. This will help considerably.

Tomorrow, we'll be posting Eyes in the Backfield for both KC and Atlanta (one column for both games). We will probably only being doing one podcast for both games as well. It's really tough to invest the 3 hours or so it takes to prepare, record and edit the podcast more than once in the week.

Demond Sanders: Here's a good story from Jeffri Chadiha about the loss of Freeney and Indy's prospects for the rest of the season.

I'll believe it when he goes on IR

The Star claims Freeney is done for the year. Or rather, the headline says that. The text of the article is less certain. We thought this was true of Dallas Clark last year as well (different injury I know), but he did make it back. Earlier this season, it was said that Eli Manning had a separated throwing shoulder and was out for weeks, and maybe the season; he played that Sunday. Injuries are weird, and Freeney might be out, but let's just see what the team does. If they keep him off IR for a week or two (something they can't afford to do because of the number of guys hurt), it says they still have hope. Otherwise, we'll know by the weekend.

UPDATE: I guess I believe it. It's official; he's on IR and is done for the year. Weeeeeeelll, that sucks.

Demond Sanders: This team has spent the past two weeks proving that they don't believe in excuses. Unfortunately they didn't win either of those games, but they made their point nonetheless. I still think they can beat New England and win the Super Bowl. Simeon Rice can be this year's Booger McFarland. The ex-Buc who enters mid-season to help his old coach win it all with a new team. Or he could be worthless. . .

Straight from the bottle

Is how Demond was drinking his wine while recording this week's 18 Plays. And no, I'm not making that up. Here's an actual transcript of our conversation once the red light went off:

DZ: Man, we were a little surly tonight. Do you really hate Adam Vinatieri like you said?
Demond: Yeah, I spent the last hour drinking wine straight from the bottle.

We are a little more sour than even last week, but some vestiges of our sense of humor remain. As always you can catch us on the website as linked above or subscribe via Itunes.

May I just point out to everyone who shares Demond's murderous inclinations toward AV, that love for Vinatieri is what separates us from the animals.

Season of the Damned?

ESPN is reporting tonight that an anonymous source says that Dwight Freeney might be out for the season. This is very bad and very predictable news. The dreaded Lisfranc injury was the first thing that popped into our minds when we saw Freeney's foot wrapped.

What if I had told you last January that the Colts would play much of 2007 without Marvin Harrison, Dwight Freeney, Nick Harper, Jason David, Cato June, Dominic Rhodes, Booger McFarland, Rob Morris, Tarik Glenn, and their first and second round draft picks?

Your response would have fallen into one of two categories:

1.) Does Bob Sanders play the whole season? Yeah? Oh, then we'll be fine.

2.) Awesome! We're getting the #1 pick in the 2008 draft.

Let's hope Freeney is fine and just needs to rest his foot for a month or two. He was great at San Diego and in my opinion he is worth every cent for his ability to collapse the pocket. This wouldn't spell the end of the season, but it sure feels that way.

I feel like I owe you some good news. The Colts are 15 point favorites over Kansas City at home on Sunday. Larry Johnson has been ruled out. Also, Brodie Croyle will be the starting quarterback. The fans of Indianapolis will be angry and the team will be out for blood. At this point I think it is best to take the Jim Mora Sr. approach and not worry about the playoffs. We're just trying to win a game.

DZ Comments: We are going to try and do 18 Plays tonight, so look for it tomorrow. In the meantime, read Dr. Z saying that Sunday night was one of Manning's finest hours. It's amazing how many great games he's lost on missed field goals. Sunday night he played awful for about a half and amazing for about a half. Still, you had to feel like we had a chance. With most teams, you turn off the TV down 23; with Manning at QB, you keep watching, because even though they might not win, you know it'll be close.

As far as the injuries go, we can only hope that an easier 2nd half schedule will give the Colts time to recover. Otherwise, it's 1996 all over again.

You know you have a lot of injuries when...

you have to claim Simeon Rice off the scrap heap. Well, the good news is that with KC and Atlanta coming up, we might be able to cobble together 35 warm bodies and field a semi-competitive team. Ye gads, has it really come to this?

What matters and what doesn't

I was up until 4 AM after the game tonight because I was so frustrated. Here are my thoughts on about 5 hours sleep:

• while it would have made the night a lot more fun and the week a lot easier if AV doesn't push that kick. It probably doesn't matter much in the big picture. The Colts finished the hell stretch of the schedule 2-2 after losing two brutally frustrating games. They will likely finish 13-3...
• Unless the injuries are too much to overcome. We didn't lose that game last night because of injuries. We lost because of horrible play by Manning and Adam Vinatieri and the special teams. That being said, there are now so few healthy guys, that it makes you wonder how we'll field a team next week. We might remember this game for a long, but not for the reasons you think.
• This season couldn't feel more like last season. Was this loss really any worse than the stupid Dallas game, the Tennessee game, the Jacksonville game, or the Houston game?
• San Diego won but should be very concerned. They are not a good team. With as many mistakes as the Colts made, they should be embarrassed at how the game turned out. Phil Rivers is an utter disaster.
• This Indy defense is legit. With their backs against the wall all night, they played with passion and pride. Gary Brackett is playing the best football of his life.
• Hopefully, Toudouze is the temporary answer at LT until Ugoh gets back. The protection was much cleaner after he came in the game.
• Manning was clearly pressing early. A couple of those picks were really great defensive plays, but the first, fourth and fifth ones were absolutely unforgivable throws.
• All of the little annoying things about this game aren't worth focusing on. The officiating was spotty, with missed horse collar tackles (on both teams), blow interference calls (on both teams), and the idiot who randomly blew his whistle when he didn't have a look at the play in the end zone. The Colts did enough to piss away this game on their own without whining about that stuff. Dungy taking a timeout to get an explanation of the call was odd, but I really don't think he could have imagined that AV would miss that kick.

I'm not relishing another week of "will they or won't they play".

Demond Sanders: I totally agree. The defense is playing amazing football. The performance last night was maybe the best I've ever seen from a Colts defense. Even more than Manning, they were dead set on winning despite the odds. This is last season in reverse. This time the offense is in shambles.

I think we've seen the last of Special Teams Coach Russ Purnell after this year. His failures have become impossible to ignore. Again, we are in for a depressing week, but last season has prepared Colts fans for this. Nothing will ever be worse than Jacksonville. Last night showed the entire NFL that the Colts are a lot like zombies. You have to cut off their head or they keep coming back.

Gift Wrapped

Chargers 23 - Colts 21

Chargers In-game Blog

Hello and welcome to Sunday Night Football. The San Diego Chargers are taking on the visiting Indianapolis Colts. Demond Sanders will be blogging the first and third quarters. Deshawn Zombie will handle the second and fourth quarters. The Colts injury report includes: Marvin Harrison, Dallas Clark, Anthony Gonzalez, Tony Ugoh, Freddy Keaho, Tyjuan Hagler, Matt Giordano, and Dan Federkeil. Note that three of those injuries are concussions. This is going to be a very interesting game. The Chargers are missing Center Nick Hardwick, DE Luis Castillo, and DB Quentin Jammer. The Colts will need a big night from their defense, especially Dwight Freeney.

1.) The Chargers run back the opening kickoff for a touchdown. The Special Teams are especially horrible tonight thanks to the injuries. Has Adam Vinatieri ever been remotely close to making a tackle on one of these deals? Chargers lead 7-0.

2.) Nice return by Crap Thorpe to midfield. The Colts need to answer. Pass interference on Cromartie covering Wayne gets the Colts in the red zone for the first time tonight. Addai seemed to cut the wrong way on first down. Interception by Cromartie. The Chargers get possession at the the five yard line. Ugly start.

3.) LT is stoned on his first carry. He's wily and likes playing the Colts. Big third and seven. Colts force a punt as Rivers throws well wide of his mark.

4.) Crap fields the punt in San Diego territory. Manning's ball is tipped and picked by a linebacker. This game is going pretty much how I expected so far. Actually worse.

5.) The Zombie Sanders makes a nice tackle on LT. Big third down. Colts force a field goal on a nice pass breakup in the endzone. Gates had a hoard of guys around him. Chargers lead 10-0.

6.) Crappy return by Crap, with an even crappier holding penalty. Sadly, I think that joke may tire out as the night goes on. 3rd and 13. Incomplete. This game is shaping up to be a horrendous blowout folks.

7.) As I type the previous sentence the Chargers run the punt back for a score. They miss the extra point. Chargers lead 16-0 and yet only have one first down on offense. I wouldn't be that worried, but the offense looks totally inept.

8.) First down toss to Bryan Fletcher. That's a start. Bryan Fletcher has made a couple nice grabs out of the slot. Yes, you read that correctly. Fletcher is in the slot. Huge sack makes it second and 23. The offensive line is playing poorly. A third pick by Manning. A ball he got nothing on. Oh well. The starting lineup looked like something that might be playing in the third quarter of a preseason game so you can't really feel too bad about this one.

9.) Anyone still reading? Clint Sessions just got screwed on national television. An inadvertent whistle just killed a great return on an improbable interception. Gary Brackett tips a ball in the end zone and it bounced off Bethea and then Sessions snagged it off the back of Brackett's thigh. What a night. The return was already set up when the whistle blew. Sessions had his blockers, including Zombie Bob. The defense has to be furious right now. By the way, Norv Turner is a moron for challenging that.

QUARTER TWO:
DZ here now, and I'm looking for bright spots. The brightest? Manning's -11 fantasy score that quarter might just save my season. WOW, now Charlie Johnson is hurt? Awesome.

10.) This game reminds me so much of Jacksonville last year, it's almost hilarious. Meanwhile Manning throws another pick. High comedy has taken over here in San Diego, as Manning tries a Brady jump ball, and Reggie Wayne stares passively as it's picked off.

11.) The defense is still playing with fire at least, as they hold the Chargers off on third down. The Chargers decide to man up and go for it on fourth down. The old pick play works for first down. Rivers fumbles the next snap. Is there any proof at all that he's actually a competent NFL quarterback? (Insert your own-he's outplaying Peyton Manning joke here).

12.) The coaching staff clearly failed to have this team ready to play this week. The Chargers are clearly a beatable team, but tonight the game plan has been poor, and the execution worse. Manning has played absolutely horrible, but the rest of the offense is clearly out to lunch as penalties and lack of effort have made things worse. Basically, this has been a gutless half. I'm out for awhile, if anything note worthy happens I'll comment, but there's really not much more to say.

13.) What can I say, I'm a glutton for punishment. As the Colts drive here, you realize that a score and a stop would give the Colts the precious 3-1 possessions, because they get the ball to start the second half. Sigh. This will end badly, but a man can hope. So there's the first score to Wayne, but what would really get them going is a defensive stop here.

14.) The Chargers run a cool play on first down. They then choke by running a play with 2:01 AND Rivers grounds it. This gives the Colts a chance to use timeouts if they get a reasonable stop on 2nd down. Funny stuff.

15.) And there you have it. The Chargers help the Colts out by running a stupid play before the 2 min warning, and now we have the next two possessions. A score here, and it's game on.

16.) Thorpe wastes about 20 seconds running sideways. A huge throw to Wayne puts the Colts within shouting distance of a score. After a great catch by Reggie into FG range, Diem goes down. For crying out loud. It's freaking 1996 all over again.

17.) Crap can't haul in the TD pass. They get the FG team on, but AV yanks another kick. He has not been good this year. (Let's see if the Pats fans are gutless enough to make fun of the dude who made them what they are...).

18.) So...we had 2 returns for scores, 4 picks and a jacked figgie. That's about as bad a half as you can play. Still, San Diego doesn't exactly inspire confidence.

THIRD QUARTER:

19.) The Chargers lead 23-7. Adam Vinateri destroyed all the momentum the Colts were building by missing a field goal as time expired. He's starting to piss me off. The Colts have done everything wrong and are only down by 16. That's kind of amazing given that they are on the road and are heavily featuring a guy named Craphonso.

20.) Reggie Wayne gets cracked to open up the drive. I don't know why the Colts aren't trying to run the ball. Kind of strange and insane. Kind of awesome. This team is always entertaining. Huzzah! Joe Addai picks up a big 3rd and 1. Keep running it. It's only the third quarter. Big fourth down and two and the Colts go for it. HUGE COMPLETION TO MOOREHEAD. Terrible pick by Manning.

21.) Big third down conversion for San Diego. Bob Sanders slipped on the play. San Diego is finally getting something going on offense. They haven't done much, but they haven't needed to. The Colts D needs to force a turnover so Peyton can throw another pick. Big sack by Robert Mathis. Loss of 10 yards. Chargers punt.

22.) The Colts are getting routed by a bad team. How does SD only have 23 points? This one is all on Manning and the Special Teams. The Defense is playing their butts off. Nice footwork on a huge conversion by Manning and Wayne. The Colts need a touchdown before the fourth quarter. That's it for me tonight. It's been fun. The Colts are going down tonight, but for some reason I'm coming away with a perverse respect for how good this team is.

FOURTH QUARTER:
DZ is back again. This is quite the annoying game, because the Chargers are clearly an inferior team, but Manning is playing like he's on drugs. Incredibly creative one moment, self destructive and insane the next. Keith has a nice run after the catch. How much do we miss that missed FG now? The two pointer is good to make things veeeeery interesting. This was big for the team to finally shake out of the funk. Isn't this what we predicted on Eyes in the Backfield this week? Ok, a two quarter slump and a fist fight between the GMs. Whatever. No one's always right.

What? A great stop on a return AND a penalty? I'm aghast. Down 8, I'm still cursing the missed FG and the inadvertent whistle. Damn you, whistle! How dare you sound inadvertently?!

Here comes a huge 3rd and 10 as Rivers is glad it's raining so no one can see him wetting himself.

HOLY CRAP! HOW IS THIS EVEN A GAME?
Addai gets no mo and the two point conversion is stopped. This game has officially gone off the hook. I have no idea how we'll chose 18 plays from it to talk about on the podcast. AV, HOW COULD YOU HAVE MISSED THAT KICK? Or I could say, PEYTON HOW COULD YOU HAVE THROWN THAT FIRST, FOURTH, OR FIFTH PICK?

The special teams holds. Can the D come up big again? They have all night. Ooops, it looks like Norv finally realized we are down four linebackers. We are screwed now. Norv might have grown a brain. Sessions is terrible as he lets LT get around the corner. LT looks like he's ready to bust one deep, but the Chargers decide to pass. Good grief, they are so badly run.

Hey great! Freeney's gone! Why not? Everyone else took the day off. Meanwhile Rivers throws what should have been a. a pick and b. pass interference. Neither ensues. Huge stop. Crap lets the punt go, and it heads to the 1. I smell safety, or maybe an epic drive. I don't even know what to say anymore.

Manning throws the ball a half a step long on the home run ball, but then hits Reggie for a HUGE first down to change field position if nothing else. Norv challenges again. This could be the play of the night. No matter how this turns out tonight, the Colts caught fire and that is what had to happen. Norv loses another challenge, and it just seems like maybe this game will turn out allright. Maybe. Oh lovely, Freeney in a cart. ARRRGH. The Chargers look like their will is broken. Let's run the ball. Big third down coming, but even so, the Colts did a good job getting out of the shadow of the goal line. Crap comes through again. I love that little dude! Ok, I admit that I cursed him after he let that punt go. Whatever, stop judging me.

HOW DOES HE DROP IT? Oh because it's pass interference of course. Hey, everything else went wrong, why not that? Wow, that was ever so close to being epic. Gotta love a deep ball to...Aaron Morehead.

You get the feeling that the Chargers should be able to run the clock out. The Colts are playing actual colts on defense at this point. They don't have anyone else!

SESSIONS! Rivers is just flat giving this game away.

The Colts aren't running effectively, but they are running consistently. Manning seems content to let this come down to the Colts D vs. Rivers. As Dawson leaves the field, I can't help feeling like it's Buffalo 1996 all over again. A huge first down by Addai forces the Chargers into their second time out. Three runs and everything will be ok, boys. Addai slips and the Chargers empty their timeout gun. Run the ball two more times and SD will need a FG with no timeouts and 1:10 on the clock. One more run. If he gets the first down, the game is over. As one of the readers, Matt said, Toudouze has been huge. Charlie Johnson getting hurt was the play of the game.

THERE IT IS. Run the clock to one second and kick the field goal. Madden is nuts. If you lose on a missed 20 yard field goal by AV, so be it. Nothing else makes sense. Meanwhile, it's a game of inches as the play is reviewed. The ball is moved back. The Colts have to kick this (eventually, I'm cool with trying to draw the Chargers off). The Colts try the reset play, but Utech moves too quickly? on the reset. Meanwhile, the review and the snap simulation costs the Colts 20 seconds of clock time.

Apparently, AV has money on this game as well. The stupid shift play (hey, I called for something like it too), cost the Colts 5 yards (FG good) and a timeout. I suppose a stop here on third down leaves the Colts about :20 to comeback. Not liking our chances.

We need about 30 yards for a 50 yard FG, but who knows what to think at this point. This game might just end on a hail mary. Demond said this was the Pittsburgh game all over again about a half an hour ago. Certainly jumps to mind. Again, I don't think this game means much in the big picture, but it sure served to ruin my night. DZ out.

Thank you Veterans

88 is out and the Pacers and Hoosiers fade

HEEEEY! There's the Pacers we know and love! Fading hard down the stretch in three straight winnable games! Last night's debacle of a 4th quarter was an embarrassment, but tonight to light up the scoreboard in the first quarter and then not even match that total in the second half. . . sigh, I guess the 3-0 was a mirage. I'm not surprised, but still a little disappointed.

The Colts waived TJ Rushing. I realize this is a roster move to deal with injuries (specifically almost no WRs), but his terrible game last week didn't help him. He barely made the 20 on his returns. Not a good sign, with Craphonso waiting in the wings to pull a CNN on us.

Finally, I'm not sure how the officials ruled the way they did at the end of the IU/Northwestern game today, but I suppose if you could just rule on the idiocy of play, Lewis's pass attempt DESERVED to be a fumble. I'm sorry, but if IU gets whipped by the Boilers next week, I hope they do get shut out of a bowl. Wins over Minnesota, Ball St, and 1AA schools just don't scream "we're for real." This team should already have 8 wins, and we'd be talking a possible New Year's day game. I'm just not convinced Bill Lynch is a big time college coach.

Finally, Demond and I haven't worked it out yet, but one of us will definitely be blogging tomorrow's game live, so check it out.

Demond Sanders: I can't say I feel sorry for you if you were looking to the Pacers and IU Football to get you out of your post-Patriots depression. Rushing will be back eventually. He was terrible against the Patriots, but he had been solid in his other games. No fumbles and consistently decent returns is all the Colts are looking for. Last week he hurt the team with poor decisions. Although Polian pointed out that they had a big return set up at one point and someone missed a key block that would have sprung Rushing.

Pike's Peak

Congrats again to the 5A Regional Champ Pike Red Devils. Next Friday's matchup should be a corker. They are so close to the dome, we can almost taste it. I'm not sure why our teams had to be so bad when we went there (although Demond got to see a basketball title). Still, it's nice for the old alma mater to keep throwing up wins.

Good News/No News

The Colts are going to be down anywhere from zero to 8 starters on Sunday. The Good News is that everyone participated in some of the practice. The No News is that most of them are still game time decisions. With any luck, we will actually field a team this week and not have suit up Bob Lamey at DT.

Seeing things

Eyes in the Backfield is back for week 9. We've had a major influx of new readers to the blog in the last few weeks, and it occurs to me that not all of you may be fully aware of our home page at 18to88.com, since at least a few of you hadn't seen the Star Wars predictions. If you've never been there, stop by and check it out. That's where we put our weekly features (like Eyes in the Backfield which lists 18 things to watch for each week during the game), and our more in depth articles that require us to actually research a little and not just be glib.

John sends us this retrospective of Manning and Leaf, that also says that Marvin was up and running around at practice yesterday. I don't know what that means, but it sounds promising.

Maybe this game really will be Manning vs. the Chargers

If the injury report is to be believed, and it has been pretty accurate all season, the Colts will barely be able to field a team this week against San Diego. Phil B. runs them down in his blog, but it looks now like the team might be down Clark and Ugoh as well as the on going saga of Marvin Harrison. The Colts are also having trouble finding a warm body to play at linebacker, with the top 4 LBs hobbled by this injury or that. All this continues to emphasize the importance of continuing to win and lock up the two seed. Having an extra week off to get everyone healthy will be crucial come playoff time.

Until further notice, the number 1996 is banned from our blog (Scroll down to #6 and throw some salt over your left shoulder).

Also, check out this interesting exercise in 'redrafting'. The Colts original choices are both off the board (anyone still think of Tony Ugoh as a reach?) by the time they pick.

Mike Tanier of FO has an interesting point to make about two teams coming off losses but headed in opposite directions.

Up late

I didn't get to bed until the wee hours last night because I was putting together 18 Plays. I've had neither the time nor honestly the desire to scan the web for stuff today (weeks after a loss are usually like that), but I did like Dr. Z's power rankings. He did a good job explaining the ebb and flow of the game and is to this point the only commentator to mention that the Colts were missing linebackers (and not just Marvin Harrison). I also heard a first: Chris Mortensen said that:

"The Titans are winning despite Vince Young's struggles."

I can't tell you how relieved I am that someone actually pointed this out. At some point, the world has to wake up to the fact that that defense is legit, and Young simply isn't playing up to the quality of the rest of his team.

My war with the Pats fans continues much as it has for the last couple of days. We have settled down in to just two categories: nice guys who had a good laugh and sickos. To the nice guys out there who root for the Pats, I say good luck, hope your team stays healthy so we can have legit epic rematch in January with no excuses for anyone. To the sickos (and they far out number the people who are decent). . . I usually just mock them.

As it turns out we've had a LOAD of traffic from the Boston site "Sonofsamhorn.com". Which explains the virulent nature of a lot of the email. One guy actually bothered to download 18 Plays and then wrote me this morning to say:

You guys are such homers it makes me sick. It makes my physically sick.

This was about the 10th message from this guy. We had earlier dialogued about whether some of his earlier comments were racist (Tony Dungy looks like a crack user said Mr. Personality). Of course, I responded to him as I always do when people accuse of being homers. . .

OF COURSE WE ARE HOMERS! OUR WEBSITE IS CALLED 18to88.com!

Let me be clear for those of you out there that seem confused about Demond and I:

1. We are Colts fans.
2. We run a website for Colts fans.
3. We don't make any money doing it, and we have no agenda other than to be funny (defined by: whatever makes us laugh at each other) and promote our team.
4. Although. . . we can be bought if anyone is interested. . . no? Ok, no harm in asking.

Again, I sort of thought all that was sort of self evident. . . but apparently it isn't.

88 Reasons to Hate the Patriots is now the second most viewed page in 18to88 history, still some 32,000 views behind our Star Wars NFL predictions. Which basically proves that love (of Star Wars) is stronger than hate (of the Patriots). Let's hope that always holds true.

The families of Charlie Johnson and Tim Jennings probably shouldn't listen

to 18 Plays this week. Yeah, we managed to drag Demond in to record it, despite many threats throughout the year that he wouldn't talk after a loss. You can download our palate cleansing effort from the website or from Itunes. We do manage to laugh. . . once or twice.

The Mayor Who Saved the Colts

It looks like Indianapolis Mayor Bart Peterson is going down in defeat tonight. We can talk ad nauseam about how high the local property taxes are (I sold my house this summer because of insanely high taxes), yet I come not to bury Bart Peterson, but to praise him.

In college at Indiana I wrote a business school paper about the fight for a new Colts stadium. At the time, Jim Irsay said he wasn't sure it was a good idea, perhaps implying that the market was just too small to support a team. Bart Peterson was among a small group of civic leaders who had the foresight to realize that if the city lost the Colts it would undo a large chunk of the progress the city has made in the past twenty years. Peterson made it his personal mission to make sure the team stayed. I voted for him in the last election based only on his positive stance towards the Colts. Yes, I'm that kind of crazy.

I want to say thanks to Bart Peterson. He is right up there with the honorable Bill Hudnut, as far as I'm concerned. Mayor Hudnut was the mayor who brought us the Indianapolis Colts. Bart Peterson was the Mayor who helped to save them.

Fan Mail

So I'm not sure if we should thank the good folks at Cold Hard Football Facts or not. They linked us on their main page yesterday ("Funny Colts blogger struggles with cycle of rage") and linked it to 88 reasons to hate the Patriots. That was really cool of them, but it also flooded our inbox with insane emails. Apparently, I have to explain myself using very small words so some people can understand me: We are joking. It's called hu-mor. Yeah, we really do hate the Pats, but seriously folks, we are joking around. This site is the result of two brothers publishing the kind of stuff that we email and IM to each other every day anyway. We are two guys sitting around laughing, and want the rest of you to be in on the joke. Not everyone gets that; they took 88 Reasons as some kind of cultural manifesto.

The email we received fell into three categories:

1. So profane and vile that it sort of made me sick that people could be so twisted. There was actual evil involved in some of these emails.

2. Furious that we dared to make fun of Bill Belichick's son-Seriously. I actually felt bad about the one about Tom Brady's baby, and I actually slightly adjusted the wording this morning because I felt it was a tad harsh toward a kid who hasn't even had the chance to be annoying on his own yet and will probably grow up to hate his dad as much as the rest of us. But come on. Joking about Bill's annoying kid (who does have a drug charge against him) is not the end of the world. Every one of the dude's buddies must have emailed us calling us puritanical and cruel and what not. Whatever, it was a joke, and we laughed about it, and we aren't apologizing for it.

3. People who thought the article was hilarious and have a sense of humor. I thank you both.

Here are some of the best emails of the day:

Tim says: I appreciate the vigor with which you support your Football club, but don't you guys have more important things to do with your time out there in Indiana? Like husking corn for instance? I hope northeastern teams continue to blow out your pathetic franchise and beat you at the very game with which you are obsessed. The Northeast is the best part of this country and always will be. Clinging to your pathetic little football team won't change that. The funny thing is, while you guys are living and dying by the Colts, football is just a simple form of entertainment here in the northeast and always will be. I just find it to be so amusing that your area of the country obsesses to no end over football and you can't even beat the Northeast, an area of the country that could care less about football. Face the facts, whatever you do, we can do better. It's always been that way and it's not going to change. Have fun milking your cows tomorrow morning.

Sincerely, A proud upstate new yorker

Dude, what a great email! Did you work on that all day? I couldn't have done a better job of mocking the arrogance of the north east myself! Classic performance! Not to mention the irony involved in going to the trouble of emailing someone from the midwest to complain about how much spare time WE have out here. Sooooo funny. Man, you should write professionally, because you are a gosh darn hoot! thanks for reading!

Next we have William who quite fairly points out that perhaps our criticism of a Pats fan site was self inflicted: Um, don't go to Patriot sites, dude. Crazy thought, but if it is ilovethePatriots.com, um maybe you won't like it. Just saying.

Too true, my friend. All too true. We had that coming.

Sean writes: You're list on why you hate the Pats was really cute. Looks like the fans are just like the players, whiny little b*****. Why don't you spew some venom on your choker quarterback who has let his fans down like what, 20 times in big games?? You guys pay good money for tickets to see those choker losers and they reward you guys with sub-par play time and time again. Dungy gets fired from Tampa Bay and what happens the next year? Manning leaves Tennessee and what happens the next year? I never understand why you guys support your brides-maid team year in and year out. We'll see your loser team in Foxboro in January and beat them yet AGAIN.

Here's my list on why i hate the Colts:

1. They are a bunch of losers with loser fans.
Manning chokes YET AGAIN!!
LEWSERS!!

At first I thought Sean was being satirical as well. I wrote to thank him for hilariously mocking the Pats fans who blame Manning for everything because apparently they think football is a game played by two men at a time, and Manning is a choker because he threw two perfect TDs that his wideouts dropped and was blindsided on consecutive possessions by a line that decided to imitate a sieve. Incredibly, as it turns out Sean was serious! I then chided him for his spelling. He replies (and I'm serious):

That's a Jim Carrey line from Ace Ventura, Einstein. The LEW is accented. Get it?

Oh I'm sorry, Sean. I stand corrected. It was my mistake to think that we were living in 2007 and to expect a reference from this century (or at least from a movie classic enough to be worth quoting a dozen years later). You've done it Sean! Your wit and wisdom have bested me.

A couple of quick notes: 18 Plays will be up late tonight or tomorrow morning. Also, Pats fans keep commenting on old posts from the weekend, but oddly enough no one has anything to say about "Let me be very clear." Huh. Curious.

Let me be very clear. . .

about the 'noise' issue at the RCA Dome. I don't believe the Colts pipe in noise. I don't believe the CBS tape is proof of anything other than audio difficulties at CBS (and seriously folks, do you really think they only run one 'track'? That's why Nantz's audio could be ok and the crowd noise distorted). Apparently, Colin Cowherd said they cross checked it with the radio audio from both the Colts and the Pats and the radio broadcasts didn't have the same distortion.

BUT. . . If the Colts did pump in crowd noise it would be cheating. It would merit the loss of a first round draft pick (or in this case a second and a third, since the Colts don't have a first). It would be an egregious crime against the game. Bill Polian should resign and no longer be considered by anyone for the Hall of Fame. Tony Dungy should resign if he actually had anything to do with it (which I doubt very seriously he would even be in a position to know about it). He should also not be considered for the hall.

And you know what Pats fans. . . I'd be ok with all that. Cheating is wrong. There is no place for it. Consequences should be swift and harsh. If it's proven to the same degree of certainty that Belichick's crimes were PROVEN and admitted by him, then this should be the punishment. No question.

I don't think they did anything, and I'll be shocked if anything comes of this, but I hope for a full investigation. I will be FURIOUS at the team if something is proven. Look, I'm a baseball fan, so I understand 'gamesmanship'. Stealing signs (non electronically) is legal in baseball. Doing things like painting the visitor's locker room pink to get an edge are fine. Violating SPECIFIC LEAGUE DIRECTIVES is wrong. We slammed Belichick for it (though not as hard as our readers wanted), and we tease the Pats fans about being cheaters. If it turns out that our team really did do these things, we will be rightly irate. The rules are their for a reason and ought to be followed.

No hypocrisy here, Pats fans. We won't defend a moral degenerate just because he wears our colors. There is simply no place in the game for cheating. I still can't figure out why the Pats defend their slug of a coach.

UPDATE: The Colts have been cleared. It was all CBS. Sorry folks. Try again.

The Morning After

So I'm still not exactly sure how I feel today. The weird thing is that there are still a lot of games to play but it feels like there shouldn't be. I was pondering where this loss ranked among the tough losses we've had through the years, and the answer is, I have no idea. Obviously, if we miss out of the #1 seed by a game, it'll hurt more, but I honestly thought that it wouldn't matter before the game, so I'm not really even depressed today. I see New England going 15-1 and Indy going about 14-2 or 13-3. The two seed seems fairly secure, and hopefully the team can come off the mat with a tough win next week in San Diego.

These are my thoughts of day:

1. There are a lot of pissed off people in New England today. A lot of people lost a lot of money on that game because they bet the Pats. That makes me smile.

2. The Patriots seem rather surly even though they won. Their aura of invincibility was irrevocably shattered yesterday, and I don't think they like it.

3. What's with Belichick being an ass to Dungy? I know I shouldn't be surprised, but I sort of am. Is this really over the comments Dungy said after the cheating? If you read those comments, they really weren't much. He seemed to be saying it was a shame that people will taint their accomplishments the way people look at Barry Bonds. BB is a psycho. He must be a very unhappy man.

4. The coverage seems to go in two veins: some people say NE is going 19-0 because Indy can't possibly win there. Others seem to realize that this was about more than a win and a loss, because that won't matter much in the end. This was about NE getting exposed by a team that was down 5 starters. Indy is perfectly capable of winning in Foxborough, as they've shown the last two years. I actually think the bad weather will hurt NE more than Indy, but I've made that point for weeks and even I'm sick of saying it.

5. There were a couple, not many, of weird comments about Manning. Um, he played pretty great folks. His receivers dropped two TD passes or this game isn't close. His left tackle was a disaster, and he was throwing balls to Aaron Moorehead. This one isn't on him. He out played Brady, who had all his weapons, but other than Moss bailing his high throws out all day, didn't really look that good. He did have a nice scramble for a big first down and threw a nice ball to Stallworth and two good tosses to Welker at the end, but this game was about people other than Manning and Brady. Both had good throws and bad throws.

6. I'm glad the D is pissed. Honestly, I'm ok with their 'collapse' because they still held the Pats to 24, but they clearly felt they should have held them to 10 or so. That's the right attitude. Bring that fire Sunday night, will you?

7. I'm pretty much right in line with Kravitz's take which sounds like things we said here yesterday. Honestly, the red zone failures yesterday had as much to do with personnel losses as anything. No Harrison and no AG meant that Clark could be blanketed all day. The FO Comments mention that as well.

8. Randy Moss is the unquestioned MVP of the NFL. I can't honestly understand how there is even a debate about this. Can someone explain to me how an argument can be made for anyone else. As far as the Tim Jennings thing goes, don't ask me. It's utterly inexplicable. He must be fast, because he's not good at much else. He did almost have a pick on a nice jump of a route against Moss yesterday, but that was the only play I saw him make. There isn't anything else to say about him that hasn't already be screamed.

9. Thanks to all of you for reading! I had a good time with the live game blog and we passed 1000 hits in a day for the first time, so that was cool. Win or lose, 18to88.com will be here for you to comiserate with. I'm actually not surprised by the lack of blowback from the Pats fans. I think we all know that game could have gone either way, and there isn't any point in blowing crap until January when all hell will break loose.

10. I'm not going to post a lot of links today or tomorrow unless they are really strong. I'm exhausted by the past week, and sort of tired of the talk. We will be doing 18 Plays tonight, so look for that tomorrow.

11. About the noise glitch on CBS. . . seriously people, get over this story. Some idiots actually think that the technical glitch they saw on TV was what things sounded like in the dome. I hope the league does a full investigation so the morons can stop their yapping. NOT EVERYONE CHEATS PATS FANS! Just because your coach is a freak doesn't mean the whole world is. Give it up.

Like I said, I'm not really depressed at all; I'm irritated and a little pissed off. I imagine the Colts feel the same way.

Short

Patriots 24 - Colts 20

Regrets and recriminations

Just got back from the game. Here are a few thoughts, some of them rage-filled and non-sensical:

1.) Congratulations to the Patriots for winning. They played about as well as I expected. They may very well go 16-0.

2.) Peyton Manning is better than Tom Brady.

3.) The Colts choked as a team today. Up 10 in the fourth quarter and they can't close it out. That's the definition of a choke job. I'm sorry, but it is.

4.) The Colts played well today. The game went down much the way I predicted in my post below. Joseph Addai is amazing. Manning played well, despite being down two receivers and his all important Left Tackle. The defense really impressed me, unfortunately they couldn't seal the deal.

5.) It's really boring to say, but field position cost the Colts huge today. Well, that and poor play by the O-line in the second half. And a completely unbelievable dropped ball by Reggie Wayne. Okay, there are a few things to blame.

6.) The Colts will play in Foxborough in January. That's what is so frustrating about this loss. All week I've been saying to myself and others that this game wasn't that important. And in many ways it wasn't. It certainly proved nothing about who the best team is. But because of the Pats joke of a schedule it absolutely means the Colts will not get the 1 seed. That's the legacy of this game. That's what will be so depressing to all of us for the rest of the regular season.

7.) Let the Marvin Harrison vigil begin.

8.) The Colts need to beat San Diego next week and do everything possible to forget this game ever happened. Play them one at a time and if the Colts are lucky they'll take the field on January 21st, 2008 at Gilette Stadium.

9.) They'll beat them next time.

"The Charlie Johnson Game"

Before the season, the Footballoutsiders predicted a decline for the Colts offense due to replacing Tarik Glenn with Tony Ugoh. What you saw today is what the Colts offense would look like if they had actually replaced Glenn with a lesser player. Charlie Johnson was consistently awful today. His false start pushed the Colts back on the field goal drive and he gave up the sacks on the next to last Colts possession. There were lots of key plays and players in that game, but Johnson's play was unforgivably bad.

Come back soon, Tony Ugoh. We miss you.

DZ's running game blog

PREGAME:
I'm sick today. I've had a horrible cold all weekend, but I'm going to man up enough to type (yeah, I know, save your crap for someone else). Before the game let's be clear about some things:
1. I think Indy wins and easily. I don't think the Pats get to 25 points.
2. No matter what happens today my opinion about the following issues will not be changed:
A. The Pats won't beat Indy in January even if the game is played in NE
B. Peyton Manning is a better QB than Tom Brady
C. New England is a great team who I hate
Don't try arguing about these things with me. I don't want to hear it. Today's game is meaningless either way, and I'll say that again after we blow these guys out.
3. I'm more worried about Tony Ugoh's health than Marvin Harrison's.
4. THE PACERS ARE 3-0! Hey, let's celebrate while we can. I think that teams respond to coaching changes, but that effect is often temporary. O'Brien has his players ears for now. I hope it lasts.
5. They sunk Notre Dame's battleship! I'm Irish and from Indiana, so I at least passively root for ND usually. Not yesterday. I don't know if it is the joy of watching Weiss lose or what, but that was fun.
6. Demond just informed me that Harrison and Ugoh are both out. That sucks, but doesn't really change my opinions about this game.
7. Vince Young is 14/20 for just 110 yards and 2 picks. But Carolina's O is horrible, 13-0 Titans. He just wins games doesn't he? Barf.
8. The J-holes and Chargers both suffer bad losses. Does anyone want to be #3 in this conference? Adrian Peterson is a freak of nature. That game could have been 50-10.
9. That last point sounds like Peter King wrote it. That's a bad thing.
10. Demond called to say, "It's loud as hell in here". I could barely hear him
IT'S GAME TIME!
QUARTER ONE:

• Colts won the toss. That sucks. I love starting the 2nd half with the ball.
• Getting Addai involved early is awesome. I'm shaking so hard I can barely type. I hate being sick.
• Big drop by Wayne. He makes that play in his sleep.
• Watching Charlie Johnson block on the edge was encouraging.
• Manning gets them with hard count. Not in the stats, but a sign of his greatness.
• The challenge slows the game down and puts the Colts rhythm at risk. Can they overcome a 2nd and 10 plus the slow down? I'm commenting every play. Must slow down.
• Never mind. I forget about how I've been saying for weeks that the Pats can't stop the run.
• Huge first down run by Addai. The Pats whiffed by drafting Marooney.
• Great play by Seymour. Forces a tough third and long. Johnson's choke job forces the Colts into a give up play. AV yanks the kick. That's a rough start. We all know they can move the ball easily on the Pats; points are what count.
• Mathis (aka the Invisible Man) shows up large early. 3rd and longs are must stops in this game.
• Great job by the cover two. No points for the Pats. Good pressure by the line kept Brady from looking downfield.
• Addai shows why I think we'll win in January regardless of location. THE PATS CAN'T STOP THE RUN.
• Pass int saves a TD for the Pats. AG beats his man like a drum.
• Does Keith fumble...if he did I'll kill him
• No fumble, 3rd and goal. RUN THE BALL AGAIN.
• AG loses the ball. Settle for a suck FG. Should have been 6.
• Hey! There's our sucky kick coverage! Glad you're back boys...we missed you.
• Moss hears footsteps but makes the catch
• A Big 3rd and 1 for the Pats is coming up. But that's next quarter. This quarter saw Indy dominate but let the Pats off the hook, due in large part to a horrible false start that pushed the field goal attempt back. The Pats were held off the board for a quarter which helps dispel the myth of their 'unstoppable' offense. The kick coverage really hurt them on this drive, giving Brady a short field.

QUARTER TWO:

• No QB is as effective when under pressure.
• No surprise that NE is running the draws. The Colts are down to some really crappy LBs. It's hurting their ability to stop the run. This isn't the same defense without Keiaho OR Hagler
• Let's see if the Pats WRs are more sure handed than AG...yup, Moss beats Tim Jennings (WHY IS TIM JENNINGS-aka worst corner ever-on Moss)
• The difference in this game is a missed FG and a dropped TD pass. Frustrating start, but it still seems unlikely that the Pats put up more than 24 points, unless the kick coverage goes to hell a few more times.
• Big play for Addai catching the ball. You feel like he's going to break one long today.
• Nice block Charlie.
• Addai is a beast. Yet more reason he kicks Marooney's ass-he can catch the ball
• Terrible, terrible pass int call. Payback is awesome. I hate that fade route to Morehead.
• Good coverage on 3rd and 5. I hate wasting a down on that first down fade.
• This next drive will decide what type of game it'll be. If NE scores, it might be an up and down game. A stop...and I think we are looking at 30-20
• SOME JACKHOLE IN MY BUILDING JUST TOOK OUT THE CABLE!
• Ok, it's back just in time to watch Moss get scared of catching a ball in traffic.
• 3rd and 7, play of the game right here and Moss beats Jennings. Someone needs to stop putting Jennings on Moss. I heard that would be the matchup all week, but it makes no sense. Jennings is the worst corner on the team.
• We really miss the linebackers.
• I'm done till halftime, I'm missing too much by blogging.
• Ok, I lied. First off, Cold Case made 100 Episodes? The only thing more improbable would Shark making 100 eps.
• Also, Indy needs to use timeouts on D here. This is why I hate losing the toss. NE has a shot of getting the dreaded two straight possession. The Colts need to preserve the clock for a 2 minute FG drive regardless of what NE does here.
• Um, that crap doesn't work against good teams, Tommy.
• I think the Pats must have taken that timeout, there Jimmy (unless that happened to have been a first down).
• Not a bad little half drive by the Colts. You can't be too aggressive or risk giving them the ball back with great position and lots of time.
• JOE MAHFREAKING ADDAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAI

Half time comment: This game should be 20-7. A dropped TD and a missed FG, or NE would be in dire straights right now. Let's go and win this bad boy. Demond called. He's already hoarse. He's been screaming for an hour and a half.

Third Quarter:

• Marlin Jackson is a real man. Great plays by Hayden and Jackson force a punt. Look, NE is good, but they've played some horrible teams. Let's just bury this ridiculous "unstoppable offense" crap about NE. They are good, and they might win this game, but Indy has proven that even down a handful of LBs, that NE can be controlled. This is a good, even great team, but they are not some invincible force of nature.
• That was a bad pick. Very Bradyesque, Peyton.
• Mathis destroys Brady again. Huge play coming on 3rd down.
• Wow, sucks to play on the road boys. Pats can't even score when in FG range to start a drive. Bullet...consider yourself dodged.
• Both offenses look out of sync. But the Colts do an amazing job of covering a huge punt despite flags against NE for unsportsmanlike conduct. The D needs one more big stop to hold the momentum.
• What an absolutely amazing game. The Colts almost get the stop, but Brady escapes the heat, and then Bob Sanders blows up a 3rd and 2. That was a great drive by NE, and Moss's catch was superlative. I think I've settled back into calm appreciation for the teams playing. These are the two best teams in the NFL and nothing definitive will be decided today. NE had has some tough calls go against them, and Indy is down 5 starters. That's life. There shouldn't be any excuses today.
• To end the third quarter Wayne drops a TD pass and Welker rips off a long return. I think we are all worried about the stamina of the defense in the fourth quarter, but they end the third quarter in fine fashion, stopping the run.

FOURTH QUARTER

• GARY MAFRICKIN BRACKET!!! Amazing play. That's how he made the Pro Bowl two years ago. The Pats implode with a personal foul call.
• Horrible play calling. HOLY CRAP WHAT A CATCH BY CLARK. Manning avoids the hit and delivers a huge first down.
• Manning and Addai are huge as the Colts pull ahead by 10 under 10 to play. This game feels like it's being played in 1957. It ought to be watched in black and white. It's old school all the way.
• Tough break as Bethea doesn't get deep enough on Moss. Bob Sanders getting hurt is both devastating and sort of predictable. I bet he comes back. If he doesn't, it's because he's out for the year.
• I know two guys are hurt in the secondary, but they are also the best tacklers out there. If the Pats run the ball twice, it's a 3 point game.
• Demond calls to say Bob is back in the game.
• Great catch by Welker. This barn is officially burning.
• It's time for a "Baltimore Drive"
• I fear Lilja just killed this drive. Oh wait, Diem just helped! Hey, Charlie Johnson helped too! Nice job O line. Way to kill that drive.
• Yeah, I don't like our chances right now.
• Big mistake not challenging the Stallworth catch. He bobbled it when it was OB. Well, there are the 24 points for the Patriots. Might it be that Brady FINALLY had a game winning TD drive? Our line is playing so bad...I like his chances.
• Ugh, watching Morehead drop that pass was almost hilarious.
• And so ends a pretty frustrating game, assuming the Pats get a first down. The line play was just not strong enough at the end. This goes back to what I said hours ago. I saw nothing here today to change my opinions of these teams. AV missed a FG, AG drops a TD, Wayne drops a TD. This game could have gone the other way just as easily. NE will lose games this year, and will lose in January. I think a healthy Indy wins this game going away. That's not an excuse; NE did what they had to do and they won, but they didn't convince me they were the better team. Just the better team at the end today.

Patriots Pre-game

I really hate these guys. I'll be rooting as much for the Patriots to lose today as I will be for the Colts to win. This game is difficult to predict because of the injuries to Marvin Harrison, Tony Ugoh, and Freddy Keiaho. The presence of each would have a major impact on the game. Marvin greatly limits your options as a defense because you don't want to leave him with single coverage very often. Tony Ugoh's run blocking is critical in a game like this. And do you really want to face that offense with Rocky Boiman playing a major role?

The national experts were much more split in their predictions than I figured they would be, but the media hype-meter undoubtedly points to the Patriots. The Colts are underdogs in a building where they've won 14 consecutive games. The Colts almost never play the respect card, but today they come in with a chip on their shoulder.

I liked what I saw from the Cleveland and Dallas rushing offenses earlier in the season. Today is not a day where you worry about preserving Addai. You hand it to him 25 times and throw it to him 12 times. The Colts are going to come out swinging and grab a sizable lead. It's a much tougher game without the injured players, but I still have a good feeling about this game. I think Indy hangs on for a 34-28 win.

Because 18 just wasn't enough

Are you seething yet? Are you sick of the hype, the hoodie, and all things New England? Then check out

88 Reasons to Hate the New England Patriots

I want to give special thanks to those readers who contributed especially Colts Girl Brandy, Darnell and Joel whose entries made the list in some form or another.

In other news, I will be doing a live game blog tomorrow. For reasons not worth going into, I can't make it down to Indy for the game, so Demond will be screaming his lungs out alone, and I'll be stuck here with most of you. Not that I'm bitter.

Devil Power

Good on ya' boys! The Pike Red Devils captured their first sectional championship in football last night. The week before they controlled Ben Davis on the road. It's been amazing to see the transformation in the major sports for Pike in just barely more than a decade. We had been competitive in basketball under Ed Siegal for many years, but nothing could have prepared us for the run of glory that occurred in the late 90s and beyond. And now, to actually be relevant in football...It's a little hard to believe, but awesome nonetheless. Anyone who's ever won a sectional knows it's a thrill, but you gotta keep winning. Losing in the regional baseball finals two years in a row still hurts me very much, so I hope the boys have another great effort in them next week. The dome is oh so close now....

Welcome to Colts-Pats Weekend!!!

Wilco has a special message for the Patriots:

DZ comments: I love Wilco. Does my love for Wilco make me cool enough to offset the fact that I breathlessly posted about the X-Files last night? No? Oh, ok. I'll just go sit over there in the corner...

This just in...Danny Granger is good

Two and oh for the Blue and Gold! Another sweet win at home is exactly what this team needed to help reenergize its fan base. Danny Granger is playing incredibly well off the bat, and a second straight win over the kind of Eastern Conference club they have to beat is where it's at. The Heat might not have D-Wade healthy, but that's all the more reason to get them now. I really want to see this team get off to a good start to give us something to care about come late February. Watching the Colts let free agents walk really isn't my idea of a fun spring.

Pats place RB Sammy Morris on IR

The New England Patriots placed Running Back Sammy Morris on the Injured Reserve today. We're about to find out if Laurence Maroney is durable enough to carry a team to the Super Bowl. This is a serious blow to the boys from Foxborough. Morris was the team's leading rusher with 384 yards and 3 touchdowns. This could be one of those injuries that doesn't fully catch up to the team until playoff time. Massachusetts in January is cold and wet. You better be able to pound opposing defenses with the run.

88 hurtin'

It sucks that Marvin is so banged up. It's chilling to think this might be the beginning of the end for him. I hope he plays on Sunday and throws up some sick game just as a giant screw you to the universe. This is a different team when he's healthy, which is scary because they've steam rolled three straight solid defenses without him. His greatness has a been a joy to watch for a long time now, and if this is the harbinger of the end for him, we won't ever forget his greatness. Go back and read 88 reasons to love Marvin Harrison one more time. For old time sakes if nothing else.

Demond Sanders: The good news is that the Colts are firmly denying this rumor. Unlike the Patriots, you can usually count on the Colts not to lie to the public. I don't think this is the end for Marvin. I believe he's right in the middle of a stretch that twenty years from now we'll refer to as The Super Bowl Years. People can attribute this lingering problem to old age, but the truth is it was a fluke injury. Addai ran into him. Look at Andre Johnson with Houston. He's missed half a season with a knee injury. Age has little to do with it.

The Hall should boycott him

Ah, so Barry Bonds doesn't want to be part of the Hall of Fame if it accepts his asterisk laden 756 ball? Big fricken deal. He shouldn't be in anyway.

Everyone complains about Pete Rose tarnishing the game, but what Pete did 1. had no affect on actual game outcomes and 2. had no bearing on his career as a player. Pete should have been banned for life, and from the Hall as a manager (not that he could have gotten in on that count anyway!), but his role in baseball as a player was never questioned, and thus should be in the hall as a player.

Bonds on the other hand...CHANGED GAMES AND SEASONS BY CHEATING AND BY BREAKING THE LAW. Let's all be adult here. No, he never failed a test. Neither did Marian Jones who endured OLYMPIC LEVEL TESTING constantly. She passed every one. And guess what, she admitted she was doped to the gills by the same exact people that drugged up Bonds. Innocent until proven guilty beyond the shadow of a doubt isn't a moral code, it's a legal standard. The 'moral' standard as set by the 'Judeo-Christian ethic' is the testimony of multiple witnesses. Bonds may not be legally guilty (yet), but I do believe there has been more than enough evidence and witnesses for the public to know what happen. Even OJ beat the courts (sort of), and there is little question that he killed his wife (another court using different standards even said so). Should Bonds go to jail without more evidence? No, of course not; a man's freedom is too valuable to take away without overwhelming proof. That doesn't change what we all know happened and what has been repeatedly and regularly documented (thanks San Fran Chronicle).

Bonds doesn't belong in the Hall, and I would love it if he didn't show up. He tarnished the game far deeper than Rose did. His cheating endangered lives and altered history.

Hate still to come

We should have the 88 Reasons We Hate the New England Patriots up this evening. I really am going to to limit the links today. For one, I'm busy most of the day, and two: I'm really sick of it. So no links unless they are really good. Here's an example of a good one:
Cold Hard Football Facts tracks the Manning/Brady rivalry, and names it the best ever. I'm inclined to agree. I think we'll be talking about these games for decades.

Len Pasquarelli's piece merits a link today. He delineates how the two teams have been built. The Colts numbers are insane. They simply don't sign players who played on other teams. This should also tell everyone how amazing Adam Vinatieri is.

I'm a geek and I don't care

Because this made my day.

Demond Sanders: Whoaa. . . NERD ALERT. NERD ALLLLLERRRT. But seriously who am I to talk? I'm turning 27 and I asked for this for my birthday.

Eyes on the Prize

I've hit my saturation point. I can't hear anything else about this game. No more links from me unless they are really, really good. And hey, speaking of really really good, check out our Eyes in the Backfield for this week. Demond wrote #18, and I've been laughing out loud over it for about 15 minutes now. The hilarious thing is...everything he wrote really happened.

What actually will make the difference

This article reminds of blind hogs and mud, but Jeremy Green(!) has actually pointed out something relevant. The one thing that continues to encourage me all week is the physical play of our secondary. I expect the Pats to complete a lot of passes (upwards of 75%), but I expect their wideouts to get popped once they make the catch. I will be interested to see if they are still willing to go over the middle with as much aplomb in the 4th quarter as in first. I expect Welker to take some huge hits on Sunday.

Why this game isn't played at night

We complained about it months ago, and I think that had the league realized it would be two teams with a combined 15-0 record playing, they might have moved it, but the Colts and Pats are actually going to have to compete against two other NFL games on Sunday afternoon. Ugh. This game deserves it's own spotlight, but the reason it's not getting it is that the league had to appease CBS (who has now lucked into the two biggest games of the year in Dallas/NE and Indy/NE). This article suggests it could be the single highest rated afternoon game in history. I imagine CBS said, "Hey, we haven't had the Colts and Patriots for three straight years now, it's our crappy afternoon turn!" NBC got the Colts/Chargers (which 6 months ago seemed to have nearly identical potential) as a consolation. Still, it screws the fans (especially those who live in Houston and Oakland and apparently Cleveland...but those fan bases are used to getting screwed all the time anyway).

I hope you enjoy it CBS. This game should really have been played at night.

Greatest. Article. Ever...and a lot of other stuff

Want to have some fun today? Check out this gem on Zombie Bob Sanders. I had gone back and forth on Bob, wondering if the Colts could actually resign him to a huge deal when he is such a huge injury risk. The answer is obvious. They can't afford not to resign him. If he finishes this year healthy, possibly the best option would be to franchise him for a year. Something tells me they are more likely to do that with Clark, and try to sign Sanders. He's a freaking beast.

This week has me thinking about the passage in "Quiet Strength" where Dungy had to prepare his Bucs to play the 99 Rams. All the pregame talk by the Colts has me thinking they are using the same emotional strategy...be a tornado vs. a hurricane. Somewhere, Belichick is standing on a hill outside Foxborough shouting, "DUNGY! YOU MAGNIFICENT BASTARD! I READ YOUR BOOOOOOOOOOK!" Oh, for the record, the Bucs had that game won, until they got jobbed by the refs. I'm starting to wonder if this game doesn't end with Wes Welker getting carted off the field after going over the middle against a team that actually hits.

• In other news. . . Gil Brandt checks out key matchups. Really? Harrison on Clark? Didn't the Pats just get Thomas to cover Clark? At this point isn't he a lot faster than our HGH hero Rodney Harrison (yeah, remember, the Pats have cheated in more than one way this year)?
  
• FO covers the various prop bets.
  
• John D sends us this great Frank DeFord article that says this game is worth the hype.
  
• Here's a funny "separated at birth" piece found on the BlogRush network.
  Here's another off the network. . . one blogger's hilarious/crude response to ESPN's power rankings this week. Much of it was written in crayon. . . also from the network, a Seattle fan breaks down the game.
  
• CHFF takes a look at the Dungy vs. Belchick matchup which is closer than most people would guess. Belchick does get the nod based on his three rings, which unlike the QB debate, is a valid point in gauging head coaches. QBs are one player among many; Head Coaches are the guy most directly responsible for the team's preparation and play. If Dungy wins a second Super Bowl, however, it'll be hard not to place him ahead of Belichick. SI says they couldn't be more different.
• Reader Josh Brown throws us this great site from which you can pick stylish apparel.
  
• SI does a pictorial retrospective on the Brady/Manning games.
  
• Hey! Great news! Whitlock likes the Pats! He also thinks Manning's not a big game QB! We are golden.
  
• The Czar thinks the Colts only have one All-Pro player. . . and he eats brains.
  
• DJ Gallo weighs in on the matchup in his own special way.
  
• Several Hall of Famers weigh in on Brady Vs Manning. The result? They end up picking no one. I really think this debate is beginning to wear out. I really do think that it's just more intense now more than ever because there are NO other names to throw out there. There are Manning, Brady and everyone else. Favre? Eh.
  
• Dr. Z breaks the teams down position by position. He gives the Pats a slim 5-4-2 lead on offense and a 6-4-1 lead on defense and picks the Pats.
  
• Scouts can't answer the $64,000 question any better than anyone else can.
• Scouts Inc breaks down the game, but they think the Pats have the advantage at QB, so how credible could they possibly be? Jeremy Green had Keith Kidd on his show today, and as it turns out, Kidd used to work for the Pats...hmmm, real nice collection of unbiased experts there Scouts Inc.
• Here's a great FO piece on the Patriots site "Outside Foxborough". It's all about the Colts cap construction and one of the best pieces of the day.
• John Clayton chimes in with a voice of reason. He's right; the Colts schedule is brutal. 14-2 would be a miracle season. The Pats have no business going less than 14-2 with the schedule they have.

Colts - Patriots Predictions?

Hey, do you remember that one game in New England when Tom Brady threw four crushing interceptions against the Colts? Or the game he threw the Big Pick? Sure you do. That was all just last season. One more hilarious collapse like those and we might be lucky enough to witness something like this:



Well maybe he won't start throwing the ball underhanded, but it would be nice to see Tommy Boy throw a few picks on his jump balls to Moss. Anyone care to share their Colts vs. Patriots predictions?